


i will wake up fine

by girlslikegirlslikeboysdo



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: M/M, Nobody is Dead, Past Alex/Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Past Julie Molina/Carrie Wilson, additional tags to be added as series progresses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 26,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26888698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlslikegirlslikeboysdo/pseuds/girlslikegirlslikeboysdo
Summary: AU where the boys didn't die in the 90s, but instead are live teens in 2020, attending los feliz high school.a year after dropping out of high school and running away to tour and make a name for sunset curve, luke, alex, and reggie are offered a scholarship to the music program at los feliz high school. it coincides with an offer for luke to come home and make amends with his parents.
Relationships: Alex & Flynn & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie, Alex & Julie Molina, Alex & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie, Alex & Luke Patterson & Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex & Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex/Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn & Julie Molina, Julie Molina & Luke Patterson, Julie Molina & Reggie, Julie Molina/Carrie Wilson, Luke Patterson & Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 37
Kudos: 240





	1. Chapter 1

The clock was surprisingly loud, ticking past every second. Luke wondered if it had always been this loud or if somehow it had gotten louder in the year he had spent away from this room. The clock ticked to 7:30 and the alarm blared. Luke switched it off and sat up. There was a knock on his bedroom door and his mother poked her head in.

"Sleep well?" She asked.

"Yeah, perfect." Luke lied. He hadn't slept a second all night.

"Okay. Well. I made breakfast if you want some." His mother stood there for a moment, looking at him with a hesitant smile, and then left, pulling the door shut behind her.

It was all too weird for Luke, being back in this house after the past year, his mother trying to speak to him as if nothing was wrong, and waking up in a room without Alex or Reggie. Luke unplugged his phone from its charger and called Alex. It rang for a few times longer than usual and Luke realized how early it was to be calling.

"Hey, Luke." Alex finally answered on what was probably the last ring before it went to voicemail.

"Hey. Sorry, I didn't wake you up, did I?"

"I would have actually had to fall asleep first for that, and I didn't sleep at all last night. No, I just wanted to step outside before I answered. Reggie actually is asleep." Alex said.

"I didn't sleep either. It's weird, right? Not being in the same room?" Luke asked.

"Very, and I even had Reggie with me. I can't imagine how it would have felt trying to sleep completely alone." Alex said.

"Just really weird. How'd it go last night with Reggie's parents? Everything work out okay with you guys staying there?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, I think so. I swear, they acted like he hadn't even left. And they just kinda shrugged when asked if I could stay for a while so I guess we're good?" Alex sounded unsure.

"If it turns out you're not, just tell me. You can come stay here for a while."

"Oh yeah, because Emily would love hosting your ex-boyfriend who convinced you to join a rock band and run away for a year." Alex sounded sarcastic.

"She doesn't blame you for that, Alex. It's me she was mad at." Luke told him.

"She certainly doesn't love me for my role in it though. Reggie either, but at least he can't be accused of seducing you into it." Alex said.

"Hey, you seduced me into nothing. If anything, I seduced you." Luke said with mock seriousness.

"I'll be sure to tell your mom that." Alex said with a laugh.

"She wants to apologize, by the way. She said she hates all the things she said to you and Reggie last year. She invited you guys to dinner on Friday." Luke said.

"Well, let's see if we even make it to Friday first, shall we?"

"Good plan." Luke said.

"Oh, Reggie's up. You wanna talk to him too?" Alex asked.

"Nah, we should get off the phone and get ready. First day of school and all."

"God, I'm dreading it." Alex sighed.

"It'll be fine. You guys gonna come pick me up?" Luke asked.

"We'll be there in twenty." Alex said.

"I'll be ready." Luke said and hung up. It was stupid, but he had really missed Alex and Reggie after just a night apart. It had been nearly a year since they had been separated by more than at most a single wall for a night.

Luke got out of bed, got dressed, and headed out to the kitchen to meet his parents. As he walked down the hallway, he heard them quietly talking.

"I don't know, Mitch. I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing here." Emily said.

"Just be glad that he's home safe. We don't have to worry so much anymore." Mitch said.

"You're right, I know. I just feel like I should be doing something or saying something." Emily said.

"You have time, Emily. You don't need to rush this. The hurt from this past year won't be healed overnight." Mitch said.

Luke walked into the doorway and knocked awkwardly to announce his presence.

"Oh, honey, come, get some breakfast." Emily said, quickly smiling to hide the concerned look that had been on her face.

"Thanks, mom." Luke served himself a plate of scrambled eggs and sat down at the kitchen table with his father while his mother moved about the kitchen, making herself a cup of coffee.

"So, are you excited for the first day at your new school" Luke's dad asked.

"Yeah, I am. Alex and Reggie and I have been talking about it and the music program sounds like it's gonna be great for us." Luke said.

"You boys were so lucky to be offered a scholarship there." Emily said.

"Yeah, we were." Luke said.

"Do you need a ride? I know we're not exactly within the bus route." Mitch asked.

"No, it's okay, Alex is coming to pick me up." Luke said.

"Alex? How is he?" Emily asked, trying her best to offer a smile as she took a sip from her mug.

"We're not together anymore, if that's what you're asking." Luke said, suddenly on edge, wondering if this was the start of the first fight since he'd been home.

"No, that's not- I mean, I wasn't sure about that, but I was just asking because I heard through the grapevine at church what happened with his parents. I just realized I wasn't sure if he has a place to stay right now." Emily said.

"Yeah, sorry. He's staying with Reggie." Luke told her. He felt bad for immediately going on the defense when his mother asked about Alex, but in his defense, the prior year, his relationship with Alex caused a problem at every turn. His mother thought he was a bad influence, thought he was violent because he played the drums, and basically thought that because the start of Luke's relationship with Alex coincided with the worsening of his problems with his parents, that meant that Alex was the root cause of all of it.

"Well, he's welcome here. If he needs somewhere." Mitch said and Emily nodded in agreement.

"Thanks. I'll tell him." Luke said, fairly surprised by this unprompted offer.

Luke's phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out to see a notification from Reggie.

Message from: Reggie

beep beep bitch

we're here

Accompanying the texts was a selfie of Reggie and Alex in the front seat of their van outside Luke's parents' house. Reggie was winking with his tongue stuck out while Alex held up a peace sign.

"That's him and Reggie now. I gotta go." Luke said.

"Okay. Have a good day, hon." Emily said.

"Let us know if you need anything." Mitch said.

"Thanks." Luke grabbed his backpack from where he had left it the night before on the kitchen counter and walked outside to meet the boys. As he approached the van Reggie leaned over Alex in the driver's seat to roll the window down.

"LUKE! It's been so long!" Reggie called out to him.

"It's been less than twenty-four hours." Luke laughed.

"Pardon him, he's well rested and feeling dramatic." Alex said, rolling his eyes.

"Is he ever not dramatic though?" Luke said as he got into the backseat of the van.

"You have a valid point." Alex said.

"I missed you too, Reggie." Luke said, leaning up to the passenger seat of the van and giving Reggie a huge hug. Reggie grinned as Luke moved back to actually sit down and buckle his seat belt.

"Are we ready?" Alex asked, turning to look at both Reggie and Luke. Luke smiled and nodded.

"I think we are." Luke said.

"Los Feliz High School, here we come!" Reggie yelled excitedly.


	2. Chapter 2

After the boys got to school, they had to find the administration office to receive their official schedules. The receptionist, Ms. Colleen, got them all set up and was in the process of explaining to them how to get to their first class when someone walking past the office caught her eye.

"Julie, hon, come here a sec, would you?" Ms. Colleen called out.

"Yes?" A girl, Julie, apparently, paused in the doorway.

"Your first period is Musical Performance with Mrs. Harrison, isn't it?" Ms. Colleen asked.

"Yes, it is." Julie said.

"Would you mind showing these three boys where it is? As of today, they'll be joining you in that class." Ms. Colleen said.

"Yeah, sure!" Julie said.

"That's that then. You boys come back and see me if you need anything else, but Julie can help you for now." Ms. Colleen said.

"Thank you." Alex said.

The boys walked out to join Julie in the hall and introduced themselves.

"It's nice to meet you. Are you new here?" Julie asked.

"Just starting today." Luke said.

"Where'd you guys transfer from?" Julie asked.

Alex, Reggie, and Luke shared a glance. They had all agreed not to mention that they had actually dropped out of school last year.

"We used to go to Washington High." Luke said. Not technically a lie.

"Oh, my friend Flynn's older sister went there before they moved. Don't they have basically no music program?" Julie asked.

"Yeah, it was kinda miserable." Reggie said.

"Not only for that reason either." Alex shot Luke a look and he grimaced.

"Don't remind me." Luke said.

"Julie, I hate to bring up the bad stuff so soon after meeting you, but no one here is going to kill me for coming out, right?" Alex asked.

"We're a majority performing arts high school. I'm not saying we don't have bullies, we for sure do, but for the most part, that's not going to be what they get you for." Julie said.

"What a relief. There might be variety in the bullying." Alex said.

"Alright guys, we're here. Welcome to Mrs. Harrison's class." Julie said, coming to a stop in front of a classroom.

"Oh no. I for sure wasn't paying attention which way we went to get here." Reggie said.

"Don't worry, I was." Alex said.

"You know we're relying on you today, Alex." Luke said.

"And for the rest of the year as well." Alex said, rolling his eyes.

"Hey, at least you know what to expect." Luke grinned.

The boys followed Julie into the room and sat down behind her. She sat beside a girl who she introduced as her friend Flynn.

"Flynn, this is Luke, Alex, and Reggie. They just transferred from Washington High."

"Ooh. Don't worry, you're in a better place now." Flynn joked.

"So it seems." Reggie said.

"Julie, do you know what you're going to do today?" Flynn asked.

"I really don't know. I'm just going to get up there and see what happens." Julie said.

"What's today?" Luke asked.

"Oh, only the determining factor of whether or not Julie and I remain friends." Flynn said.

"She's being dramatic. I just have a performance today, that's all. There's kind of a lot riding on it." Julie said.

"I'm sure you're gonna kill it." Alex said.

"Let's hope." Flynn replied.

"Alright, class, I think we're about ready to begin!" Mrs. Harrison called from the front of the room. Everyone turned their attention up to her.

"First things first, we've got some new students joining us today. I'm happy to introduce you all to Alex, Luke, and Reggie. Boys, would you like to briefly tell us about yourselves?"

The boys stood up and Alex awkwardly waved.

"We're in a band called Sunset Curve-" Luke started.

"Tell your friends." Reggie interrupted.

"We're really happy to be here." Alex quickly finished up for them and sat back down.

"Alright, well, I look forward to seeing what you have to offer. Can we be prepared for a preliminary performance from you three at the end of this week? Just to see where you're all at as a group." Mrs. Harrison asked.

"Yes, ma'am." Alex said on behalf of the three of them.

"Very good. Now, let's move on to today's performances. Up first we have Collin, then Flynn, then Tyler and Andrea together, then Nick, and last up, Julie."

"We all know how well that's gonna go." A blonde girl a few seats down from the boys whispered to the girls sitting next to her. Flynn glared at them while Julie just pretended she didn't hear.

"What's that all about?" Luke leaned forward and asked Julie while the first boy, Collin, was getting his sheet music set up.

"Don't even ask." Julie whispered back.

"A good new kid tip- Don't interact with Carrie if you can help it. Bitch is the literal spawn of Satan." Flynn told him.

"Duly noted." Luke said.

The boys sat back and watched for the rest of class, joining Julie in clapping the loudest for Flynn after her truly impressive trumpet piece. After Nick finished his piece, Mrs. Harrison called Julie up to the front and the boys watched her sit down at the piano. Julie looked nervous and Flynn was literally on the edge of her seat waiting for Julie to start.

"Take your time, Julie." Mrs. Harrison said gently.

Julie raised the lid of the piano and sat for a moment, just looking at the keys. She moved her fingers to touch the keys, but when she did, she didn't play. She stood up abruptly.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Harrison, I can't." Julie said. Mrs. Harrison looked disappointed but not surprised. Julie ran out of the room.

"Is this where we clap?" Carrie laughed.

"Watch it, Carrie." Flynn said before running out of the room after Julie.

"Alright, everyone. I suppose you can all go a little early today." Mrs. Harrison said, looking clearly disappointed.

"What the hell was that about?" Luke said to Alex and Reggie.

"That was Julie Molina officially flaming out of the music program." Carrie said, laughing before walking out with a group of girls and that guy Nick, who didn't seem thrilled to be going along with her.

"Do you think she's okay?" Reggie asked.

"Clearly not. Should we go find her? See if we can help?" Alex asked.

"No. No, I mean, her best friend is already with her, and we literally just met her. What could we do?" Luke said.

"Fair enough, I guess." Alex said.

"Come on, let's try and find our next class." Luke said.

"I miss Julie already. She knew where things were." Reggie said.

"Come on, we can figure it out without her." Alex said.

"I think you mean you can figure it out without her and we can follow you." Luke said.

"You guys are seriously lucky they put us in almost all the same classes." Alex said, leading them out into the hall towards their next class.


	3. Chapter 3

The boys only went a few classes without seeing Julie. When they got to the cafeteria for lunch, they spotted her sitting alone at one of the tables. Alex, Reggie, and Luke all walked over to join her.

"These seats taken?" Reggie asked, sliding into the seat across from her. Alex sat next to him, and Luke sat next to Julie.

"They very much are not. After this morning, I've got everyone wondering if failure is contagious." Julie said, attempting to crack a joke.

"Good news for you, we're smart enough to know it's not." Alex said.

"Where's Flynn? I figured she'd be sitting with you at least." Luke asked.

"She has lunch next period. She's in orchestra right now." Julie told them.

"Well, we are here to make sure you don't dine alone." Luke said.

"Thanks." Julie said with a smile.

"You can pay us back by giving us the low down on the food here. You know, what's good, what's not, will the hot dogs kill us, that sort of thing." Reggie said and Julie laughed.

"Personally, I'd steer clear of the hot dogs. Some kids got a pretty nasty case of food poisoning last month. The pizza is pretty good today though." Julie said.

"Good to know." Reggie said, getting up to go get himself food.

The conversation lulled for a moment and Julie's smile dropped from her face and she looked down at her hands, tapping out a basic rhythm on the table.

"You okay?" Alex asked Julie, leaning across the table and bumping her hand with his.

"I will be. Just gotta adjust to the new normal, ya know? And find a new focus that isn't music. My tia keeps telling me biology could lead to an actually worthwhile career." Julie said.

"Fuck that." Luke said, suddenly angry on Julie's behalf.

"What?" Julie asked.

"Music is just as worthwhile as any science, if not more. Music can change a person's whole entire life. It can bring new energy, push boundaries, make statements- If your tia doesn't get that, I'm sorry. She's missing out on something truly magical." Luke said.

"I see someone got fired up while I was gone. Seriously, Julie, you can't get him started on the importance of music, he'll never shut up." Reggie said as he sat back down with his tray of food.

"No, you describe it really well, Luke. Honestly, I miss feeling like that." Julie said.

"What made you stop?" Luke asked.

"My mom. Music was our thing, every since I was really little. She died last year. I haven't really played since." Julie said, looking back down at her hands.

"I'm sorry, Julie. That must really suck." Alex said.

"You clearly still love music though, right? I mean you stuck it out in the music program here for a year, and come on, look at your hands. You're tapping out a beat without even thinking about it." Luke said. Julie stilled her hands at that.

"I don't know. It's different now." Julie said.

"Julie, you should come watch us rehearse tonight. I promise you, if there's anyone who can get you hyped about music again, it's Luke." Reggie said.

"He's not wrong. Luke can easily go on about five different rants about music during one rehearsal." Alex said.

"I'll think about it." Julie said.

"Cool. You're welcome literally any time." Luke said with a smile.

"We actually really need to talk about where we're gonna rehearse now that Bobby's garage is off limits." Alex said.

"Shit, yeah, we do. We never finished that discussion." Luke said.

"Who's Bobby?" Julie asked.

"Oh, just garbage personified." Reggie said.

"He was our rhythm guitarist up until about two weeks ago when we found out he had turned around behind our backs and sold a bunch of Sunset Curve songs to some big shot record exec pretending that he had written them himself." Alex explained.

"Holy shit, guys, that's awful. Can't you sue or something?" Julie asked.

"Suing requires lawyers, lawyers require money, which we don't have. Also, not the point, the point is we don't have a rehearsal space anymore." Luke said.

"We can use my parents' basement tonight. I heard them say this morning that they're going to visit my uncle." Reggie said.

"When did they say that?" Alex asked, looking confused.

"Remember this morning when my mom was in the living room screaming about 'that bitch May'?" Reggie said.

"Yeah?" Alex said.

"Yeah, May is my uncle's wife who hates my mom and whenever my dad tries to go see his brother, my mom uses May to try and get out of going, but it never works because my dad insists on going and my mom refuses to let him go without her because the last time he went without her, he and my uncle got in a bar fight and she had to drive down there to bail them out of jail. So basically anytime May is mentioned, it means my parents are gonna be gone that night." Reggie explained.

"They can't just tell you they're going to be gone?" Julie asked.

"Communication isn't really my parents' thing." Reggie said.

"Wow. My dad wants to communicate about everything so that's kinda crazy to me." Julie said.

"Yeah, well, none of us really do the parental relationship thing well." Alex said.

"Can we return to the rehearsal talk?" Luke asked, looking uncomfortable.

"So, eight o' clock?" Alex immediately jumped in to help move the conversation away from parents.

"Works for me." Reggie said.

"Sounds great." Luke said.

"Julie? Are you gonna come?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Julie said, giving in to the excited looks of the three boys facing her.

"Great! Ooh, here, lemme give you my address and our numbers in case you can't find it." Reggie pulled a piece of notebook paper out of his backpack and wrote everything down to give to Julie.

"I think this'll make you officially the first person outside of the three of us to hear the new and improved Bobby-less Sunset Curve." Alex said.

"I'm honored." Julie said with a smile.

"You're gonna love us." Reggie promised, passing the piece of paper to Julie.


	4. Chapter 4

Alex watched as Luke tuned his guitar across the room. They were setting up for their rehearsal and waiting for Reggie to come back from picking up Julie from her house. It had been a while since Alex and Luke had been really alone and Alex had missed this simple act of just watching Luke tune his guitar and think.

"So, I'm thinking for that performance thing for Mrs. Harrison's class on Friday, we do Now or Never. Obviously, we'll wait for Reggie before we really decide, but I think it really shows off our style and what we can do." Luke said.

"Yeah, makes sense." Alex said. Luke looked up from his guitar and caught Alex's eyes. He smiled at Alex and set his guitar to the side.

"What are you thinking?" Luke asked.

"Nothing, Now or Never sounds like a good choice." Alex said.

"You know that's not what I meant, dumbass." Luke said, getting up and crossing the room to sit next to Alex on the couch in Reggie's basement.

"Well, I don't happen to be thinking about anything else." Alex lied. In this moment he was actually thinking about kissing Luke, but that was just an unfortunate side effect of remaining best friends with your ex. They remained there, cute, and in times of loneliness, could actually appear to be a good choice again.

"Really?" Luke asked, his eyes briefly darting down to Alex's lips. Clearly Alex wasn't the only one thinking about it. The sound of the upstairs door opening interrupted them and Alex stood up, crossing the room to sit at his drums.

"We're here!" Reggie called out as he and Julie descended the stairs.

"Hey, guys!" Julie said and Alex waved at her as they entered the room.

"Thank god, I have been dying to get started. Reggie, we're thinking Now or Never for that performance on Friday." Luke said, jumping up from his place on the couch and moving to grab his guitar.

"Ooh, I like that. Julie, feel free to sit anywhere you'd like." Reggie said, before moving to grab his bass. Julie settled onto the couch that Luke and Alex had just vacated and sat back to watch.

"Do we wanna just start off with that?" Luke asked and Alex and Reggie nodded in agreement.

"Let's go for it." Alex said.

"Alright, Reggie, you ready?" Luke asked.

"I'm good to go." Reggie said.

"Julie, are you prepared for this?" Luke asked with a grin.

"I have genuinely no idea." Julie said. Luke laughed and with that, started playing.

"One, two, three!" Alex called out and joined in.

"Take off, last stop,

Countdown till we blast open the top,

Face first, full charge,

Electric hammer to the heart," Luke sang.

"Clocks move faster, cause,

It's all we're after now,

Oh, woah," Alex and Reggie sang along with Luke. Luke tilted his head at Reggie, signaling for him to come over and sing the next few lines with him.

"Won't stop climbing cause, this is our time yeah," Alex watched as Luke and Reggie sang into the same microphone, grinning at his best friends. Luke pushed Reggie away and turned back to Julie, their audience of one.

"When all the days were black and white,

Those were the best shades of my life!

Don't look down, cause we're still rising up right now,

And even if we hit the ground, we'll still fly,

Keep dreaming like we'll live forever, but live it like its now or never!"

Alex watched Luke as he sang out to Julie and for a moment felt a burst of jealousy. It was stupid, he and Luke weren't dating, and even if they were, literally all Luke was doing was singing to an audience. That was his job. But the look on Luke's face and the smile on Julie's was enough to make Alex wonder.

They finished out the song to applause and cheers from Julie.

"Thank you, thank you very much." Luke said, grinning at Julie.

"You guys are great." Julie said. Alex forced a smile, now overthinking what the look shared between Luke and Julie during that song meant. He reached down to get the water bottle on the ground next to him and was actually relieved to find it empty because it meant he had an excuse to remove himself from the room for a moment.

"I'll be right back guys, I'm gonna get some water." Alex said and ran upstairs to the kitchen. He refilled his bottle at the sink and stood there for a moment, sipping the water and thinking. It shouldn't matter to him if Luke was actually flirting with Julie. Why did it matter to him?

"Alex?" Reggie had followed him upstairs when he took longer than expected.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm coming." Alex said, starting to move back toward to basement when Reggie stopped him.

"Alex." Reggie gave him a look.

"We'll talk about it later, okay? When he's not literally right downstairs?" Alex said.

"So this is a Luke thing?" Reggie asked and Alex sighed.

"Isn't it always a Luke thing?" Alex said, before moving past Reggie to return downstairs.

Reggie followed him downstairs and they walked back into the basement to find Luke and Julie laughing about something together. Reggie gave Alex a comforting pat on the shoulder and spoke up to interrupt Luke and Julie.

"Luke, you ready to keep going? I'm thinking we could do-" Reggie started saying.

"We're not doing Home is Where My Horse Is." Luke interrupted him, knowing where he was going.

"I feel like you don't give enough credit to my country songs!" Reggie said.

"Country songs?" Julie asked with a laugh.

"It's really quality work." Alex said with a smile, backing Reggie up. Luke gave him a betrayed look and Alex couldn't help but smile at it.

"You don't even have your banjo anymore!" Luke said to Reggie.

"You have an unfortunate point. It's not as good just on guitar." Reggie admitted.

"Hey, as soon as you've got access to a banjo, I wanna hear these songs, Reggie." Julie said.

"See, I like her. She respects me." Reggie said.

"I respect you too, Reggie, I was just thinking we should work on Bright tonight." Luke said.

"That's actually a really good plan. It's still kinda rough around the edges, and needs the work. Home is Where My Horse Is, on the other hand, is already perfect." Reggie said, grabbing his bass but clearly still a little spiteful about not getting to play his country songs.

"Sure, we'll go with that." Luke said with a smile. 

"Okay, come on, let's go with Bright." Alex said, sitting back down at his drums.

Luke grabbed his guitar and his notebook and sat down on the couch next to Julie, balancing his notebook on the arm of the couch and sticking his pencil behind his ear. He referred to his notes and then started playing.

"In times that I doubted myself, I felt like I needed some help,

Stuck in my head, with nothing left," Luke sang, looking to Alex as he did. Alex remembered the night that they had started writing this song together. It had been right after they left home. They were still together. Somehow it felt like forever ago and just yesterday.

"I feel something around me now,

So unclear, lifting me out,

I found the ground, I'm marching on," They moved into the pre-chorus and Alex and Reggie joined in, Alex singing these next lines with Luke.

"Life is a risk but I will take it,

Close my eyes and jump,

Together I think that we can make it,

Come on let's run," Alex finally broke eye contact with Luke as they moved into the chorus and Luke sang alone again.

"And rise, through the night, you and I,

We will fight to shine together, bright forever,

And rise, through the night, you and I,

We will fight to shine together, bright forever!" Alex could feel Luke's eyes on him still. He tried to focus on his drums instead of looking back. He played like that until the end of the song when he was forced to look back up and look at Luke. Alex could see the confusion in his eyes but he was quickly distracted by Reggie.

"I don't know, man, that song is still just missing a couple things and I can't put my finger on what." Reggie said.

"Can I-?" Julie started to ask.

"Yeah, please." Luke said.

"Do any of you guys play piano?" Julie asked.

"A little. What are you thinking?" Reggie asked.

"During the first verse, maybe opening up with something like," Julie hummed a melody.

"Or, wait, hang on, what about," Luke hummed a similar melody back.

"Yeah, yeah, I like that." Julie said and Luke grinned and scribbled the notes down in his notebook.

"And then Alex hitting in on the chorus first, Reggie and I following..." Luke noted the changes to the progression, quietly singing them to himself.

"I like how that sounds." Reggie said.

"I think this works." Luke said.

"You could maybe change the first verse as well? I mean, I like what you guys have going now, but like, I think that verse could come later, maybe second instead of first? Open up with something a little more vulnerable." Julie sounded more excited now, encouraged from the positive response to her first suggestion.

"Yeah, actually, Alex and I originally had a different first verse, it was just missing something at the time. Alex, do you remember what those first lyrics were?" Luke asked, flipping through his notebook trying to find them.

"Sometimes I think, I'm falling down,

I wanna cry, I'm calling out,

For one more try, to feel alive." Alex sang. Of course he remembered. He had written them. Luke looked up at him excitedly.

"Yeah, that was it!" Luke said.

"Okay, okay, follow that with,

And when I feel lost and alone,

I know that I can make it home,

And fight through the dark, to find the spark." Julie sang. Alex shared a look with Luke and Reggie. The girl could sing.

"That was great." Luke said.

"Do you think it'll work for your song?" Julie asked, looking excited.

"No, not the lyrics- I mean, yes, the lyrics, but Julie, you." Luke said.

"No, that was nothing." Julie quickly said.

"Julie, that was not nothing." Alex replied.

"You can seriously sing, write, and play the piano, and you just let yourself get kicked out of the music program?" Luke asked, shocked.

"Okay, let is not the right word-" Julie started.

"I'm sorry, Julie, but I don't believe you don't love this. The way you just looked while singing? It's the brightest I've seen you since we met." Luke said.

"You guys have known me for one day." Julie said, trying to push this conversation off.

"And all day there has been a puzzle piece missing that just now clicked into place while you were helping us with this song. And come on, Flynn, Mrs. Harrison? They've know you for way longer and anyone could tell this morning they were disappointed for a reason when you didn't play. That reason just became very apparent. You are so fucking talented, Julie, there is no way you're about to turn your back on music." Luke argued.

"Luke, you don't know me. You don't know how I feel, you don't know what I went through with my mom." Julie argued back and Luke's frustration melted at the mention of her mom.

"I'm sorry. I pushed too hard. I already told you I feel really passionate about this, but still, I shouldn't've- I'm sorry." Luke repeated his apology. Julie let go of her frustration as well.

"It's okay. I mean, it's not, but I understand where you were coming from. You've just gotta understand too, that this is just not something I can do right now." Julie said.

"Yeah. Yeah, I can get that." Luke said. Julie looked over at Reggie.

"Would you mind driving me home? It's nothing against you guys, I swear. I just think I need some time alone tonight." Julie said.

"Yeah, of course, no problem." Reggie said, quickly setting his bass on its stand and reaching into his pockets to make sure he still had the van keys.

"I'm sorry, Julie." Luke repeated.

"It's okay." Julie reassured him as she got up to leave.

"I'll be back in like thirty, y'all, okay?" Reggie said, getting a nod from both Luke and Alex before he left with Julie.

Luke watched them walk up the stairs and then sighed and dropped his head into his hands as they left his line of sight.

"I fucked that up, didn't I?" Luke asked Alex.

"Little bit, yeah." Alex said.


	5. Chapter 5

Reggie kept nervously looking over at Julie while he drove her home. Luke had a tendency to go overboard, all the boys knew that, but Reggie was concerned that this time he had potentially ruined their new friendship with one of only two people that had been nice to them at Los Feliz High School. And of course if Julie did hate them now, her best friend Flynn would obviously side with her, thus ruining their friendship with the second of those two people.

"I'm fine, Reggie, I promise. You can stop giving me those worried puppy dog eyes." Julie finally said after a solid ten minutes of them silently driving.

"I wasn't- I do not have puppy dog eyes. I don't." Reggie said defensively.

"Uh, yeah, you do. And they're the pure, genuinely concerned kind, not the 'I'm using these because I know they'll get me what I want' kind. If I wasn't still a bit upset, it'd be kinda adorable." Julie said with a small smile.

"So, you are upset!" Reggie said, using this piece of new information to move on from the puppy dog thing.

"Honestly, Reggie, no matter what Luke had said tonight, I would be. Music, it was my thing with my mom. I won't lie, it felt good to write again tonight, even just a few lines, just for a few minutes, but I almost felt guilty. Writing without her, without even thinking about her for a moment there, it felt- I don't know how to describe it. Wrong isn't quite right. It just felt off, you know?" Julie said.

"Yeah, I think I do. Okay, so this is- this is not at all the same kind of thing as your loss and I don't wanna say that it is, but like about two years ago, Alex left the band, right? He had-" Reggie paused as he realized he wasn't sure how much Alex and Luke wanted to tell Julie about their past relationship. He decided to just keep things vague.

"Alex had had his heart broken. Basically for the first time. Like he had sort of dated people before, but this was the big one, the really very real one, and he tried to tell this guy how he felt and it blew up in his face. And he was broken-hearted and he left the band. Just couldn't handle it. I wanna say it was like two, maybe three months that he stayed away? And I tried to talk to him, like all the time, but he was isolating himself, and it was hard. Luke, I mean you saw him, I don't think it's gonna surprise you to hear he tries to solve all of his problems with music, so he just kept playing instead of actually processing his feelings, and Bobby, he knew this guy who played the drums so we had this whole other drummer for a while and honestly, sometimes we weren't bad! But every time I thought that, any time I actually got carried away in the music and stopped thinking about Alex and how much we missed him and needed him back, I felt so guilty afterward. We weren't whole without him, you know? We needed that piece of the puzzle back. So, I kinda get it, you know? That's what I'm trying to say. It's not the same. But similar, maybe."

Reggie glanced over at Julie to see if his rambling had had any sort of effect. He sort of worried that he had just embarrassed himself, talking about something completely irrelevant. Julie was giving him that same small smile.

"Yeah. It's like that. You guys got your puzzle piece back though. Unfortunately, mine's not that easy." Julie said.

"Maybe you've just gotta find a way to hold onto the ghost of it, or- Oh my god, I just realized what I said, that sounds like I was making a ghost joke about your mom, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it like that, I meant like the idea of it, I swear, I-" Julie interrupted him by laughing at his sheer panic.

"Reggie, calm down! It's okay." Julie said.

"I am sorry. I speak without thinking a lot. I used to accidentally say a lot of things that would get on Bobby's nerves." Reggie said.

"Yeah, well, who cares what he thinks, right? Honestly your whole vibe is chaotic little brother, and with Carlos, I have about a decade of preparation in dealing with that, so you're good, Reggie. Honestly, I think you and I are gonna get along great." Julie said this and Reggie beamed.

"Really?" Reggie asked.

"Definitely." Julie said, gently bumping her fist against his arm.

It was around this moment that Reggie pulled into Julie's driveway and parked. Julie started getting out of the van but Reggie stopped her and pulled her into a big- if a bit awkward due to his seatbelt and the gap between their seats- hug.

"You're welcome back at band practice anytime- if it's not too weird, I mean. And I hope you know you're genuinely amazing. As a musician and just as a person." Reggie said.

"Thanks, Reggie. You're pretty amazing yourself." Julie hugged him back and then got out of the van, waving goodbye to him as she walked into her house.


	6. Chapter 6

Alex moved to join Luke on the couch and immediately, Luke laid his head on Alex's shoulder. Alex wrapped his arm around Luke and pulled him close.

"Why do I always fuck everything up?" Luke asked.

"You don't." Alex assured him.

"No? I fucked up my relationship with my parents. I fucked up when you told me you loved me and that nearly ruined our band. I fucked up our relationship and lost you. I fucked up when I let Bobby go behind our backs and sell our songs, again almost ruining the band. And now I just fucked up our new friendship with Julie, less than twenty four full hours into it." Luke ran through the list, counting on his fingers as he named off each new thing. Alex took the hand he was counting with and gently closed his fist, putting back down every finger he had counted a fuck up on.

"None of that is entirely on you. Your falling out with your parents is as much on them as it is on you, if not more. They're the adults, they're the parents, they're supposed to know how to handle things. And, Luke, when I told you how I felt about you, we were fifteen and, wow, huge shocker, a closeted fifteen year old boy wasn't immediately emotionally mature enough to handle something like his openly gay best friend telling him he loved him. Come on, would you blame any other kid in that situation?" Alex asked. Luke shook his head.

"No. You know I wouldn't." Luke said.

"Exactly. And the end of our relationship was absolutely mutual fuck ups. I had jealousy I wasn't dealing with, I wasn't communicating well enough what I needed from you, it was all absolutely on me too. And come on, you didn't lose me. I'm still right here. I've been right here." Alex squeezed Luke's hand and Luke gave him a small smile.

"Oh, and holy shit, you cannot blame yourself for Bobby. He did that behind all of our backs. That was him. None of us did a thing wrong. We trusted someone who told us he was a friend. As for Julie, yeah, you pushed too hard. But you understand where you went wrong, you apologized and you'll do it again tomorrow at school. You did nothing that is not fixable with kindness and compassion, both of which I know you are capable of." Alex said.

"You really don't think I ruined things?" Luke asked.

"Just talk to her." Alex said, assuming he meant Julie.

"With us, Alex." Luke clarified and shifted to sit up and be able to fully look up at Alex. Alex looked at him, unsure of how to answer. There were two ways Luke could be asking this question. He could be asking to make sure they were still good as friends, or he could be asking because he wanted hope that they might get back together. Alex wasn't sure which it was.

"Remember the night we started writing Bright?" Alex asked, as a way to temporarily avoid the question.

"Of course. That was the night after the show at the Grey Eagle, right? I think Reggie and Bobby were still inside flirting with some girls but I know you and I were in the van." Luke smiled at the memory.

"You said we were writing that song about the band." Alex remembered.

"Oh, I was writing that song about you." Luke grinned.

"Oh, really? It wasn't obvious." Alex teased.

"Well, I'm a very subtle person." Luke joked and Alex laughed.

"Subtle like a car crash." Alex said.

"God, that night- I mean, that was like our first gig after we all left home, and I remember you were so anxious and terrified beforehand." Luke said.

"So were you, you can just hide it better." Alex said.

"Okay, fair, but remember, that show, that night in general, it made everything click into place. It felt so right, just being on stage, playing an amazing show, and getting to jump into making more music with you right afterward. I had so much energy that night. You know, I wrote like five more songs after you fell asleep?" Luke said and Alex shook his head.

"Why did you never show me those?" Alex asked.

"Same reason I told you Bright was about the band? I'm bad at showing you your love songs." Luke said, shrugging it off.

"Luke..." Alex started, trying to find the words that he needed to say. He was interrupted by both his and Luke's phones dinging with notifications at the same time. Luke pulled his phone out to look at it and Alex did the same.

Group chat: Sunset Curve (new and improved)

Message from: Reggie

just dropped julie off! heading back now

Message from: Luke

cool! see ya soon

Message from: Reggie

maybe when i get back we could talk about...

Message from: Luke

i stg reggie if a single horse emoji enters this chat

"Luke, you know you can't say that to him." Alex said out loud, right as both his and Luke's phones started dinging non-stop. Alex immediately muted his, knowing Reggie would spend a solid five extra minutes sitting outside the Molinas' house, spamming the band chat with nothing but horse emojis before he actually stopped to drive back. Luke switched his phone to mute as well and set it aside on the couch and grabbed his song notebook.

"I guess if he's headed back soon, we should start figuring out what songs we actually are going to talk about. We seriously need to be constantly working on new stuff now that ninety percent of our set is no longer legally ours." Luke said, flipping through the pages of his notebook. He had shifted away from Alex in the movement to get his notebook and Alex was trying his hardest not to read into that. Luke made it hard for Alex, always communicating through actions, when Alex functioned best with an outright, zero metaphor communication of what what happening.

"Yeah, let's do it. What are you thinking about?" Alex asked. Luke started talking about some songs he had marked to work on but Alex was only half listening, nodding along while he overthought everything that had happened over the course of the night.

Sure, maybe Luke had looked like he wanted to kiss him earlier, but maybe it was just Alex wanting to kiss him and projecting his desires onto his perception of what Luke wanted. Maybe Luke singing Bright directly to him and then admitting it was a love song written for him was Luke trying to tell him he still loved him. Or maybe it was just regular Luke getting passionate while singing and simply fixating on Alex since he was the original subject of the song. Maybe Luke telling him he had actually written multiple love songs about him was Luke trying to admit how much he cared about Alex. Maybe he was just finally comfortable telling Alex about them because they no longer meant as much since Luke didn't feel that way about him anymore. Maybe Alex's instinctive jealousy was right, and Luke was starting to like Julie. Maybe Alex was going to drive himself crazy with all the maybes.

Reggie finally got back, saving Alex from his overthinking. With all members present, the band could get back to working on songs, and that's what they did up until Reggie heard his parents' car door slam shut in the garage upstairs. Within seconds, all three boys could hear Reggie's parents entering the house and bickering back and forth about how May had apparently treated Reggie's mom.

"I'm gonna call that the clear end of rehearsal." Reggie said, unplugging his bass and setting it into its case and latching it shut. He switched his amp off, unplugged the cable and started wrapping it up. Alex and Luke followed his lead, packing up all of their things as well.

"Do we have any idea where we're rehearsing tomorrow?" Alex asked.

"We could probably use one of the school rehearsal spaces? I don't know how reserving them works but I bet we could ask Ms. Colleen or Mrs. Harrison." Reggie said.

"Those rooms looked so tiny though. I don't think they're built for groups." Luke said and Alex and Reggie had to agree.

"We'll figure it out." Alex said.

Luke finished packing his stuff up and went to grab his phone from where he had left it on the couch. He checked his messages and swore under his breath.

"What is it?" Reggie asked.

"I left my phone on mute earlier and now I've got missed texts from my mom asking me when I'm going to be home." Luke said.

"Shit. I'll drive you home, Luke." Alex said, grabbing the van keys from Reggie. Luke gathered up his things and he and Alex quickly left.

"Is she mad?" Alex asked as they got into the van.

"Can't tell. Used to be if I missed a couple messages she'd be calling me non-stop trying to get me to answer. Now it's just four texts, spaced out with a reasonable length of time between them for me to potentially have seen them, and none of them seem to be her freaking out?" Luke was confused. He sent a quick text back and his phone dinged a few moments later.

"I told her I was on my way and she just said 'thank you for letting me know.' What does that mean? Why do I have no idea how to respond to my mother being reasonable?" Luke asked.

"You're asking the wrong person for parental advice, Luke." Alex said, starting to drive towards Luke's house.

"None of us are the right person for parental advice, Alex." Luke said, sighing.

Luckily, Luke lived less than five minutes away from Reggie's parents' house and Alex got him home quickly.

"If you guys start fighting and you feel like you need to get out, call me, I will be back here in a heartbeat." Alex said as he parked outside the house. It felt weird to have to be offering that again. For almost the entirety of the past year, Alex hadn't had to offer to come back for Luke, because anywhere Alex went, so went Luke. To be splitting up for the evening again felt just as weird as it had the night before when Alex and Reggie brought Luke to his parents' house for the first time in a year. Clearly, Luke felt a similar way as he almost absentmindedly reached out and hooked his index finger around Alex's pinky while he stared out the van window at his house.

"I really wish Reggie was here and I could just take you guys with me in there. I don't think I'd be half as nervous to go in." Luke said, nervously toying with Alex's hand.

"You know mine and Reggie's presence would not help whatever situation is awaiting you in there." Alex said.

"Yeah, but- It'd help me. You guys help keep me calmer, you know that." Luke said.

"You've got this, Luke. You said it yourself, your mother seems to be acting very reasonable right now. Just go inside and talk and hopefully you'll be able to have a conversation without fighting." Alex said. Luke looked at him with a small smile that Alex knew he was forcing and gently squeezed Alex's finger that he was still holding.

"I'll call you later, okay?" Luke said.

"You better." Alex nudged Luke's knee with their interlocked hands.

"Now go in there and talk to your mom." Alex said.

Luke let go of Alex's hand and got out of the van. Alex watched as he walked up to his house, turning as he got to the door to wave goodbye before going inside.

Alex hated watching him walk away. They had spent an entire year being around each other almost twenty four/seven. Anytime Luke was nervous or distressed, Alex was supposed to be there. It hurt to have to not only let, but encourage Luke to walk away from Alex and handle something as nerve-wracking to him as his relationship with his mother was.


	7. Chapter 7

Luke walked up to the doorstep and turned back to wave goodbye to Alex. After the night he had already had, between fucking up with Julie and then starting to talk about whatever the situation with Alex was, Luke didn't really want to walk inside his house and deal with whatever was waiting for him inside. Honestly, he just wanted to walk back to the van and leave with Alex. He knew he couldn't do that though, not if he ever wanted to actually fix his relationship with his parents. So he turned back, unlocked the door, and walked inside. His mother was sitting in the living room knitting, and from an outside view it might have just looked like her calmly enjoying her evening. Luke, however, knew that she sat in the living room when she wanted to be able to look out their large front window to watch for Luke's arrival home, and that she only knit when she was nervous and needed something to occupy her hands.

"I'm sorry I didn't see your texts." Luke said. His mother gave him a nervous smile and kept knitting.

"It's okay. I know it's an adjustment for you to be back. For a whole year you didn't have to worry about anyone expecting you home and I am doing my best to remember that." Emily said. Luke was grateful for the lack of anger, but he still knew this was yet another thing he had messed up.

"I know you worried though and I'm trying too, I need you to know that. I just messed up tonight. In a couple different ways, actually, but- It's not hard for me to make sure my phone isn't on mute. I can definitely do better there." Luke said. Emily shifted the basket of yarn that had been sitting on the chair next to her to the floor. She gestured to the chair.

"Do you want to sit? Tell me about your first day at Los Feliz? Your band rehearsal?" Emily asked. Luke smiled and nodded. His mother never just asked about the band before. He sat down with her and started telling her about their first day at school. He told her about meeting Julie and Flynn and inviting Julie to their rehearsal. He told her how Julie had helped them write a song and how amazing she was. He told her how he had fucked up and pushed Julie too hard.

"I'm really worried I just ruined our first new friendship at school. Julie's awesome and I pushed her too hard on the music thing." Luke said.

"Did you apologize to her?" Emily asked.

"Of course. And I talked to Alex about it and he seems to really think it'll be okay if I just talk to her again tomorrow at school and apologize again." Luke said.

"Alex is probably right. You just have to talk through it and listen to how she feels." Emily said.

"I hope so. I just can't help but think I made another stupid mistake and it's going to ruin whatever we could have had with Julie." Luke said.

"Luke, honey, do you like Julie?" Emily asked, and Luke knew that his mother did not mean as a friend.

"No! No, I mean- I don't think so. I mean, she's really cool and funny and yeah, definitely cute, and I like her a lot, but... I love Alex." Luke said. It was the first time he had said it out loud since they had broken up. He never really talked to Bobby about things like relationships or really anything other than the music, and as much as Luke loved Reggie, he didn't feel like he could talk to him about his and Alex's relationship. He knew Alex talked to him about it, and he didn't want Reggie to feel like he had to keep what Luke told him a secret from Alex, or vice versa. Alex with his anxiety needed a person to vent to and talk things out with. Luke could handle it on his own, so that's what he did. Until now.

"You didn't tell me this morning when you said you two weren't together anymore. What happened? The two of you were so close before you left and clearly he's still a large part of your life." Emily said.

"I fucked it up." Luke shrugged, trying to appear as though it didn't still bother him every day. As he kept speaking though, his eyes started to well up, giving away that he clearly wasn't over it.

"He was a mess after his parents kicked him out and I tried really hard to help him, but I couldn't tell what he needed. I did my best to just work with the music and hope it would help him through it the way that it helped me, but that's not how it works for him. He has different coping mechanisms than me and I wasn't doing a good enough job of finding out what he needed in that moment. On top of that grief of losing his parents, his anxiety was in overdrive and he got to the point that anytime I would talk to someone outside of the band, he thought I was flirting with them. Instead of looking too close at what I was doing and why he might think that or be concerned about that, I just got mad that he thought I would ever cheat on him. I wasn't listening to him well enough, and I just went on the defensive. We ended up fighting a lot for about a month and then he told me that we weren't good together anymore and I realized it was true."

"Oh, honey." Emily said, moving to hug her son as Luke's tears started falling.

"I'm still in love with him. I just really don't know what to do." Luke said.

"You'll be okay. It'll all be okay, I promise." Emily said, stroking Luke's hair as she held him and he cried.


	8. Chapter 8

When Alex pulled back up in front of Reggie's parents house, he checked his phone and saw he had a text from Reggie.

Message from: Reggie

dont come back inside when you get here

just text me and tell me youre outside

Message from: Alex

I'm outside

Alex watched the house and, a moment later, saw Reggie run outside. Reggie got into the passenger seat of the van and leaned his head back against the seat, squeezing his eyes shut and clenching his fists. Alex recognized it as Reggie being overstimulated, something that used to happen a lot when his parents got into really big fights.

"How bad is it in there?" Alex asked.

"Dad's drunk." Reggie managed to say through heavy breathing.

"Want me to roll out the mattress in the back? We can sleep out here tonight." Alex asked. Reggie nodded and Alex climbed into the back of the van to put the back seats down and make space for them to lay down. He shut the curtains over the windows and undid the tie straps keeping their mattress rolled up. Their van mattress was more of a thin foam pad than an actual mattress but it was something they could keep compact and rolled up out of the way until they needed it. Alex rolled it out and pulled their big quilt out from under the back seat. He spread that out over the mattress and tapped Reggie on the shoulder to let him know he was done. Reggie climbed into the back with Alex and they curled up under the quilt together. Reggie curled into Alex and Alex held him and rubbed his back as Reggie calmed down.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked as Reggie's breathing pattern seemed to return to normal.

"Better now. They started arguing in full force a couple minutes after you guys left." Reggie said. He rolled to lay on his back and stare up at the ceiling of the van. Luke and Reggie had decked it out when the three of them had started sleeping in the van more frequently with photos of the band and glow in the dark stars. They figured if the van was basically going to be their home, they should make it feel like it and decorate.

"I'm sorry we're back here, Reg. You've been doing so good for so long and one night back..." Alex trailed off.

"It's okay. Honestly, I know my parents, I knew what we were walking back into and I knew it was only a matter of time. That's why we have the van, right? Easy escape. All we need is Luke and this could feel like a normal night." Reggie said.

"I told him he can text us if he needs to escape. Who knows, maybe we will get that normal night." Alex said.

"Oh, speaking of. What was going on earlier?" Reggie asked, looking over at Alex now that he remembered how Alex had briefly vanished during rehearsal earlier and told him it was a Luke thing.

"It's dumb." Alex said, and Reggie prodded him in the side.

"And? I'm the king of dumb." Reggie joked. Alex moved to lay on his back as well, not wanting to look at Reggie while he admitted this.

"I got jealous of Julie. He was singing at her and then laughing with her, and it's so stupid because we're not even together and I'm still sad when he flirts with someone else." Alex said.

"I don't think he was trying to flirt if that makes you feel any better. You know vaguely flirty energy is just kinda default Luke." Reggie said.

"Yeah, I know, and I'm trying not to read too far into it, but that's just default me." Alex said.

"Yeah, I know. It's okay." Reggie said, reaching to hold Alex's hand. Alex looked at Reggie and smiled, gently squeezing his hand.

"Thanks."

"What are best friends for if not calming panic attacks and venting about exes?" Reggie asked.

They laid there together for a while, just holding each others hand and staring at the ceiling and their glow in the dark stars. After a while, Alex's phone began to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket and saw that it was Luke. He answered the call and set it to speaker, placing the phone in between him and Reggie.

"Hey, you've got both of us." Alex said.

"Hey. I promised I'd call." Luke said and Alex immediately got worried as he could hear in Luke's voice that he had been crying.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Alex asked, exchanging a look with Reggie who also looked concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine. My mom wasn't mad." Luke said.

"Dude, you sound upset. What's going on?" Reggie asked.

"Nothing, I swear, I just- I got to talk to my mom about a lot. I guess I got kinda emotional." Luke said.

"Do you want us to come over?" Alex asked.

"We've got the mattress rolled out in the van, you could sneak out and come sleep with us tonight. Maybe feel kinda normal?" Reggie offered.

"I think I kinda need to be alone tonight. I love you guys, I just- I'm feeling a lot right now." Luke said.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Reggie asked.

"Not tonight." Luke said.

"We're here if you need us." Alex said.

"Yeah, I know. Thanks, guys." Luke said.

"We love you." Reggie said. Luke was quiet for a moment and when he did speak it sounded like he was crying again.

"I love you guys too. I'll see you in the morning, okay?" Luke said.

"Okay. Goodnight." Alex said, resisting the urge to ask him again what was wrong. He knew Luke needed the space tonight, but that didn't mean Alex didn't want to drive back to his house just to be able to hold him.

"Bye." Luke hung up. Alex's own eyes started to well up and Reggie pulled him into a hug.

"It's okay. He's okay. If he genuinely wasn't okay, he'd tell us." Reggie said, but he sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as Alex. Luke so rarely got upset to the point of tears that both of his best friends couldn't help but be concerned.

Reggie and Alex fell asleep like that, in each others arms, with both of their cell phones in between them, just in case Luke called again.


	9. Chapter 9

Julie woke up still feeling weird about the night prior. She had meant what she said to Reggie in the van. It felt good to write and sing again. And it felt like she was betraying her mother to do it with anyone other than her. Julie got up and got ready for school earlier than she needed to and snuck outside while her dad was waking her brother up. It's not that she was going to do anything her father wouldn't approve of, it's just that she wanted to do this alone. She needed to do this alone. Julie walked into her mother's studio. She dropped her school bag by the door and crossed the room to the big beautiful grand piano that Julie had learned to play on. It was covered by a slip cover and Julie knew her mother's heart would be broken if she knew how long it had been since Julie had played it.

"I'm sorry. That I haven't been able to come out here." Julie spoke to the air, knowing logically that her mother couldn't hear her, but hoping with everything in her that somehow her mother's spirit was standing right there with her.

Julie pulled the cloth cover off of the piano and found underneath it pages of sheet music. Julie looked over the pages and realized it was a song her mother had written for her. Some of the lyrics Julie recognized as things she had heard her mother singing quietly to herself in the last few weeks she was alive. Her mother had known, or at least suspected, that she was losing the fight with her cancer, and she had spent the last weeks of her life writing Julie this song. Julie hated how long it had taken her to come out to the studio and find it. Julie set the music down on top of the piano and started playing. This song was a gift from her mother to her and she wasn't going to reject that gift.

"Here's the one thing that I want you to know,

You've got someplace to go.

Life's a test, yes, but you go toe to toe,

You don't give up, no, you grow.

And you use your pain,

Cause it makes you you,

Though I wish I could hold you through it,

I know it's not the same,

You got living to do,

And I just want you to do it,

So, get up, get out, relight that spark,

You know the rest by heart,

Wake up, wake up, if it's all you do,

Look out, look inside of you,

It's not what you lost,

It's what you'll gain, raising your voice to the rain,

Wake up your dream and make it true,

Look out, look inside of you,

It's not what you lost,

Relight that spark, time to come out of the dark

Wake up, wake up,

Better wake those demons,

Just look them in the eye,

No reason not to try,

Life can be a mess,

I won't ket it cloud my mind,

I'll let my fingers fly,

And I use the pain, cause it's part of me,

And I'm ready to power through it,

Gotta find the strength, find the melody,

Cause you showed me how to do it,

So, get up, get out, relight that spark,

You know the rest by heart,

Wake up, wake up, if it's all you do,

Look out, look inside of you,

It's not what you lost,

It's what you'll gain, raising your voice to the rain,

Wake up your dream and make it true,

Look out, look inside of you,

It's not what you lost,

Relight that spark, time to come out of the dark,

Wake up, wake up,

So wake that spirit, spirit,

I wanna hear it, hear it,

No need to fear it, you're not alone,

You're gonna find your way home,

Wake up, wake up, if it's all you do,

Look out, look inside of you,

It's not what you lost,

It's what you'll gain, raising your voice to the rain,

Wake up your dream and make it true,

Look out, look inside of you,

It's not what you lost,

Relight that spark, time to come out of the dark,

Wake up, mm, wake up..."

Julie finished the song and picked up the sheet music. She felt connected to her mother again, in a way that she hadn't felt in a year. She wanted nothing more than for her mother to be holding her in this moment, but she knew that wasn't possible. Instead, she held the sheet music close to her chest. If this was all that she could have of her mother, she wasn't going to throw it away. It was like Reggie had tried to say the night before. Julie just had to figure out how to use music to hold onto her connection with her mother.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> luke's lyrics this chapter are actually from linneah's song light because i heard it and it gave me soft luke vibes. go stream it on spotify and support linneah!

Alex woke up before Reggie the next morning. He checked their phones, careful not to shift too much and wake up Reggie in the process. There was still no notification from Luke. It was almost seven in the morning and Alex knew he was probably still asleep but he was tempted to call him. He knew he shouldn't. He should let Luke sleep. He should let Reggie sleep. If he tried to call Luke in this moment, he'd probably wake both of them up. Really, he should just go back to sleep until his and Reggie's alarms went off in thirty minutes. A couple of minutes of laying still with his eyes shut and mind racing made it clear going back to sleep was not an option. Alex carefully extracted himself from Reggie's hold and climbed into the front seat of the van. He left his phone in the back, knowing that if he had it, he was probably going to end up calling Luke.

Alex tried to distract himself from worrying about Luke so much. He stared out the window for a while but it was seven in the morning and nothing interesting was happening in the world yet, so Alex just ended up staring at a rose bush that he felt fairly certain was the one that he remembered Luke falling into when they were kids playing in Reggie's yard. Alex remembered Luke, hurt and stuck by so many thorns that day, still acting like he was invulnerable and refusing to cry as Emily pulled out each thorn. Staring out the window was definitely not working as a distraction. Alex looked in the rearview mirror, watching Reggie sleep for a moment, but all that did was remind Alex of all the nights he had spent sleeping in this van with Reggie and Luke. Alex looked around, looking for anything in or around the van that wouldn't remind him of Luke. His eyes landed on something in the floorboards of the passenger seat that would have the absolute opposite effect. Luke's song notebook. Luke must have forgotten it in his worry about talking to his mother the night before. Alex knew that he should just leave the notebook where it was. It wasn't necessarily private- Luke would share the entire thing with Alex or Reggie in a heartbeat- but with the knowledge that there were likely love songs about Alex in there, Alex felt like it was a line he shouldn't cross.

But the notebook was there. And Alex couldn't stop staring at it. Reggie wasn't awake to tell him he shouldn't. Alex reached down and picked it up. He started flipping through, first just the dog eared pages that he knew that Luke wanted them to work on. He focused on those, trying to just mentally note some ideas he had for the songs. And then he accidentally flipped to one of the pages immediately after Bright. The page was hard to read, with lyrics scratched out and rewritten, and handwriting that resembled chicken scratch even more than usual, but if there was one thing Alex had become an expert in, it was reading Luke Patterson's songwriting. Alex started reading and spotted his own name in one of the lyrics scratched out. This was definitely one of his songs. He knew he should stop reading. He kept reading.

its killing me to know that youre hurting

its killing me to know that you worry

I wanna show you the light so you will see

everything will be fine

I wish I could take all your fears and put them away

so you will never see them again

I wish I could take all your pain and put it away

so you will never feel it again

Alex felt tears starting to well up in his eyes when he heard Reggie shift in the back. He quickly shut the notebook and put it back in the floorboards where he found it. He wiped his eyes and turned back to the back where Reggie was waking up.

"Morning, sleeping beauty." Alex said.

"Mm, thank you, yes, I am." Reggie mumbled, still sort of asleep. He picked up his phone and checked for any notifications, squinting his eyes against the bright light of the screen.

"Hand me my phone?" Alex asked and Reggie did. Still no notification from Luke for either of them.

"Should I call him? I can make it not like we're outright checking on him, just like we're making sure he's ready to be picked up around the same time as yesterday?" Reggie said.

"Yeah, yeah, that works." Alex said. It was a decent plan to make sure Luke was at least alright enough to be going to school, and they could be there for him more once he was actually physically with him. Reggie called Luke, putting the phone on speaker. It rang a few times before Luke answered, sounding like he had just woken up.

"Hey." Luke said.

"Hello, this is your uber driver, Reginald, just calling to confirm that your pick-up time is indeed 7:45 am, is that correct?" Reggie asked in a sort of half British voice that he liked to use when he was pretending to be serious. Luke laughed at him and Alex and Reggie exchanged a relieved look that he at least was laughing this morning.

"Yes, Reginald, that is correct." Luke said.

"My assistant and I will be there at 7:45 exactly!" Reggie said.

"Hey, why do I have to be your assistant in this joke? And since when do uber drivers even have assistants?" Alex asked.

"Since I needed a reason for you to also be in the car that made sense in the fiction we've created here." Reggie said and Alex rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, because you make sense." Alex said.

"Hey, I appreciate the thought and dedication Reggie is putting toward this bit." Luke said.

"Thank you, Luke. At least someone here appreciates me." Reggie said.

"So, we'll be there at 7:45, Luke." Alex said.

"I will be ready." Luke said. They all said goodbye and Reggie hung up the phone.

"He sounds okay." Alex said.

"You're still worried though, aren't you?" Reggie asked.

"It's kinda my job to worry about him. It's part of the being in love package deal. Heartbreak, hurt, worry, and all the while wanting him, all for the low, low price of $19.95." Alex joked. Reggie gave him a sympathetic smile and reached his hand out to take Alex's.

"Sorry, that was a bad joke." Alex said.

"Hey, it was a great joke. Just also has the unfortunate side effect of making me worry about you." Reggie said.

"Come on, let's stop worrying about Luke or me or whatever, and actually go get ready for school. We can worry more later." Alex said. Reggie agreed and they both went back into Reggie's parents house to get ready for the day.


	11. Chapter 11

When Alex and Reggie picked Luke up for school, Luke could see in their eyes that they were concerned about him. He had decided to play it off though, and act like the end of the previous night hadn't happened. He definitely hadn't called them with tears in his eyes and he definitely hadn't started crying again while on the phone with them. Definitely. Luckily, his friends didn't push too hard, they just asked him how he was and let the subject go when he said he was alright. Alex was absolutely still worried though, Luke could tell by the slightly furrowed brow and constant glances back at him in the rearview mirror as they drove to school. Luke was choosing not to address that.

Luke had spent all night trying to figure out what he was going to do about his continuing strong feelings for Alex. There was a part of himself that just wanted to come clean and tell Alex how much he loved him, but Luke worried that Alex either didn't feel the same way anymore, or that if they did start dating again, it would come to that same heartbreaking end before long. Luke wasn't sure he could survive Alex breaking up with him again. Luke didn't know how to handle hiding his feelings from Alex either, though. Alex saw right through Luke's bullshit. He knew when something was up and when Luke wasn't telling him something. He also worried incessantly about it when that happened, and Luke hated to make Alex worry. So, basically, Luke came to no conclusion about what to do.

They got to school and Luke tried to turn off his thoughts. He wanted to be able to focus on things other than just Alex that day. Luke and Reggie followed Alex as he led them toward Mrs. Harrison's class. As they approached the classroom, they spotted Julie and Flynn walking out. Luke gave them a wave and the boys met them in the middle of the hallway.

"Hey, guys." Julie said.

"Hey, Julie. Listen, about last night, I really wanna apologize again-" Luke started to say, but Julie interrupted him.

"Don't be. It's really okay." Julie said.

"Guess who just sang and played the piano again this morning in part because of you boys meddling?" Flynn gestured to Julie, beaming and clearly so proud of her best friend.

"Julie, that's amazing!" Luke said.

"Does this mean you're back in the music program?" Alex asked.

"Please say yes, I'm going to miss you so much if the only period we have together is lunch." Reggie said.

"No, actually. We just finished talking to Mrs. Harrison. They already accepted a new student into the program to fill my seat. My spot's taken. It's too late." Julie said.

"Fuck that. You're way better than half the people in there! What can we do to help?" Luke asked.

"Convince Principal Lessa to add another seat to the music program? But honestly, I'm just gonna have to wait till next semester and reapply. It's fine." Julie said.

"It's so not. You're so talented, Julie, you deserve to be in this program." Flynn said. The bell rang and people started to file into classrooms.

"Shit, I still have to get my new schedule from Ms. Colleen. I've gotta go, guys, I'll see you at lunch." Julie said as she started walking away toward the administration office.

"We're gonna fix this, Jules!" Flynn called after her.

"She's already gone." Reggie said, watching Julie disappear around a corner.

"Time for class?" Alex said, gesturing to Mrs. Harrison's classroom.

"Unfortunately, yes." Flynn said, and she and the boys walked into class. They all settled into the back row together.

"We have to help Julie get back into the program, right?" Reggie said.

"Obviously. I just don't know what to do. It's out of Mrs. Harrison's hands and apparently Principal Lessa has already made up her mind." Flynn said.

"Alright, so we change her mind." Luke said.

"And you have a plan to do this?" Flynn asked.

"We all know Principal Lessa would change her mind if she could just see how great Julie is, yeah?" Luke said.

"Yeah, no one in their right mind would keep her out of a music program after hearing her sing." Alex said.

"Okay, so this spirit rally thing tomorrow is the perfect opportunity. After the official performance, we get Julie up on stage and she performs a song, kills it in front of everyone, and boom. Principal Lessa sees she's amazing, Julie's back in the music program where she belongs." Luke said.

"I love it." Flynn said.

"Couldn't she end up getting in trouble for crashing the spirit rally?" Alex asked, trying to contribute some amount of critical thought to the conversation.

"Who cares? If this is her shot, this is her shot." Luke said.

"All that's left is getting her on board, and getting her a song." Reggie said.

At that, Mrs. Harrison called the classes attention to her, and started class. Flynn tore a small piece of paper out of her notebook, wrote something down on it, and passed it down to the boys. The note read, 'TEAM JULIE'S GOT THIS'. The boys smiled and each gave a small nod.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry, this is both late and short. i've had next to no free time this past week or so, and tbh all of the time that i have had i've been giving to a pretty girl who i just met and really like! i regret nothing, she absolutely deserved that time and i got her to watch jatp!


	12. Chapter 12

When the boys found Julie at lunch and told her about the plan they had come up with with Flynn, Julie was hesitant.

"Guys, I already told you, Principal Lessa already made up her mind." Julie said.

"So change it. C'mon, Julie, I know you've got that killer talent in you, and it seems like you really want back in the program. I mean, tell me if I'm wrong and I'll back off, I swear." Luke said.

"No, you're not wrong. My mom was so proud of me when I first got into the music program, and I really want to keep making her proud. But it's not the end of the world if I have to wait and reapply next semester. It's simple, I already asked, and they said no." Julie said.

"Well, there's your mistake. You don't ask permission, you just go for it. Sunset Curve, we've booked gigs by doing. We don't take no for an answer. We've played in front of clubs, in back of clubs, hell, we've even played book clubs." Luke said.

"Book clubs?" Julie asked, skeptical.

"We didn't get too many gigs out of that one." Alex said.

"They had some gnarly snacks though." Reggie said. Julie rolled her eyes at them.

"My point is you need to swing that wrecking ball of talent of yours and smash all those rules apart!" Luke said.

"Your plan sounds violent, and besides, this isn't a club, it's a school program." Julie said.

"It's a closed door and you've gotta bust it open. If getting back into music is what you want, Julie, you gotta go for it." Luke said. Julie almost looked like she was considering it and then shook her head.

"I don't even have anything prepared." Julie said.

"Well, what did you sing this morning? Can you do that?" Reggie asked.

"No, no way. My mom wrote me that song, it would be way too emotional for me to do that in front of everyone." Julie said.

"What about Bright?" Alex suggested and Luke turned and gave him a surprised look.

"What?" Julie said.

"Come on, you sounded great singing that verse last night, and you clearly had some good ideas to add some piano in. We can spend tonight working on it and tomorrow you'll kill it at the pep rally. Plus, it's not inherently connected to your mom." Alex said.

"You'd really let me sing your song?" Julie asked.

"You'd kill it, Jules." Luke said.

"And it's not just ours anymore, Julie. They've been toying with that song for months and last night you came in and added the missing piece almost immediately. I think you get some level of ownership too." Reggie said.

"I kinda know what it's like to lose music out of your life for a while. I'd be happy to help you get it back into yours." Alex said.

"Thanks, guys." Julie said.

"Does this mean you'll do it?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, alright, fine. Let's crash the spirit rally." Julie said and the boys grinned at her.

"Yes!" Reggie offered his hand up for a high five and Julie gave it to him.

"We can meet in my mom's old studio tonight and go over Bright." Julie said.

"I'm so excited, Julie, you don't even know. I wanna hear this piano bit you were talking about adding last night and, oh my god, Alex and Luke's lyrics and your vocals are gonna be a killer combination." Reggie said, almost bouncing in his seat.

"Flynn is going to be so happy when she hears you're on board." Luke said.

"For the record, I'm still not entirely sure about how well this plan is going to work." Julie said.

"I'm not either, but honestly, do you have a better idea? Because I don't." Alex said and Julie had to concede that.


	13. Chapter 13

After lunch was one of only two periods the boys didn't have all together. Reggie went on to his bass lessons and Alex and Luke headed to their shared geometry class. Luke was only a little bit annoyed that Reggie had done well enough in their last semester at Washington High that he had managed to pass geometry and have that credit transfer to Los Feliz. Luke and Alex had spectacularly failed that class, mostly from non-attendance on Luke's part, and an unfortunate inability to understand the material on Alex's. Alex had always struggled with numbers and now, as they were forced to repeat this class, Luke was planning to do his best to support him and make sure they could at the very least help each other out on their homework. They stopped at Alex's locker so that he could swap out his textbooks, and Luke leaned against the lockers as Alex sorted through his backpack to make sure he had everything he needed. Luke watched him for a moment, just thinking silently. His thoughts shifted back to lunch, and what Alex had done for Julie. Alex glanced over at him and caught him staring.

"What?" Alex said.

"You gave Julie Bright." Luke said. He sort of understood Alex's reasoning, but he would be lying if he said it didn't hurt just a bit.

"She needed a song and one that wasn't directly connected to her mom. You would have done the same thing." Alex shrugged.

"Yeah, maybe, but Bright? Alex, I-" Luke paused, not knowing how to say this without sounding jealous. He wasn't the jealous one. This didn't happen with him.

"You what?" Alex asked.

"I thought that was ours." Luke said quietly, hoping that if he didn't speak it too loudly, it wouldn't sound so dumb. He knew Alex was probably right, and if he hadn't spend the night before thinking so much about their relationship, he would have given Julie the song himself.

"I mean- yeah, Luke, it is. Obviously it is." Alex said, shifting now to look fully at Luke.

"I just didn't expect you to so freely give it away, I guess." Luke said, bringing his gaze away from Alex, uncomfortable as he wondered what Alex was thinking while he looked at him.

"Luke, look at me." Alex said, reaching his hand out to Luke's arm. Luke did as Alex asked.

"What?" Luke asked.

"Julie singing it doesn't make it any less ours. And Reggie was right at lunch, Julie came in last night and in an instant made it flow better than you and I have been able to in the past several months of fighting to make it work. The emotions behind it, the memory of you and me in the van, that's all us, but in terms of the actual music, maybe we could use an outside voice. It's just like when we work with Reggie. He adds to it, he doesn't take away our ownership of it." Alex said.

"You're right, I know you're right." Luke said.

"You're just disappointed you and I couldn't make it work on our own?" Alex guessed.

"In more ways than one." Luke said. He knew saying that was inviting questions but it was out of his mouth before he could think better of it.

"Luke, can we talk about this? Whatever's going on here? Does it have anything to do with what happened after you got home last night?" Alex asked. There went his plan to ignore the night before.

"Alex, I'm fine, I promise." Luke tried but Alex knew him better than that.

"Luke." Alex looked frustrated.

"Alex." Luke mimicked his tone.

"Seriously? Is that what we're doing today to avoid genuinely discussing what's going on?" Alex asked. The bell rang and Luke moved to start walking towards their class.

"Nope, actually, geometry is what we're doing to avoid genuinely discussing what's going on." Luke started walking away and Alex rolled his eyes and followed behind him. They were almost to their class when Alex grabbed Luke's arm and pulled him into the bathroom they were about to pass.

"We're skipping." Alex said and Luke laughed.

"No, you don't skip, you're gonna chicken out of this in seconds." Luke said.

"Not until you talk to me." Alex said, standing his ground.

"What happened to your obsession with perfect attendance?" Luke asked.

"I dropped out of high school with you last year. You may want to reevaluate your perception of my obsession with school." Alex pointed out.

"Fuck, fine. We'll skip class." Luke said.

"And talk about what's going on." Alex added on. Luke stared at him. Alex was so frustratingly genuinely concerned about him. Luke couldn't just tell him nothing. Luke sighed in resignation and opened his mouth to speak.

"Alex, I don't know how to tell you what's going on. I spent hours last night trying to figure it out, I actually even talked to my mom about it, and I still- I just don't know. I don't want to fuck things up even worse than they are now." Luke said. Alex took Luke's hands in his own.

"Luke, I told you last night. Nothing is fucked up. Everything that happened, everything that went wrong, you're working through it. We're working through it. Together. I promise." Alex said.

"Are we working through it? Or are we ignoring the fact that you and I were together? I feel like we tried so hard to get back to some idea of normal friends so quickly, that you and I don't even acknowledge that our relationship changed." Luke said. Alex dropped Luke's hands and backed up.

"Well, what do you want us to do? Break up like normal people? Stop talking? Ruin the band?" Alex asked.

"No, god- I couldn't survive without you talking to me." Luke said.

"Okay, so, we're friends. And if you think we're not processing our break up well enough, we can talk about it, but to do that, Luke, you have to talk about what's going on with you. Clearly it's related to you and me." Alex said.

"I already told you, I don't know how to talk about this, Alex." Luke said.

"If you don't want to talk, what do you want to do, Luke? We can't just stay in this holding pattern of hurt and concern and all around confusion. I need you to tell me what you want so we can sort something out." Alex said. 'I want you' were the only words Luke could think.

"I- I don't know." Luke said instead.

"You've gotta give me more than that, Luke." Alex said and Luke could see the concern in his eyes and it broke his heart. He couldn't tell Alex he wanted to get back together. If they ended in heartbreak again, that genuinely might be it for them. He couldn't do that to them.

"I can't." Luke said. Alex sighed.

"Fine. Fine, I tried. I'm going to fucking geometry." Alex said and pushed past Luke to leave the bathroom.

Luke sighed and leaned against the wall, his head in his hands. That hadn't gone well.


	14. Chapter 14

When Julie walked out of school that afternoon, she found Luke in the student parking lot, sitting on the pavement next to the boys' van. He had his eyes closed and his headphones in, but as Julie approached and interrupted the sunlight he was sitting in, he opened his eyes and looked up to see Julie. He removed his headphones and gave her his usual smile, but there was something about it that seemed half-hearted today.

"You lock yourself out of the van?" Julie asked.

"Waiting on Reggie. He drove this morning so he's got the keys." Luke explained.

"Can I sit and wait with you? He texted me after fifth period and told me you guys could drive me home so we could dive in and get started working on Bright." Julie said.

"Yeah, sure." Luke patted the pavement next to him and Julie sat down.

"What are you listening to?" Julie asked and Luke offered her an earbud. Julie put it in and heard a song that she knew all too well.

I wanna ruin our friendship

We should be lovers instead

I don't know how to say this

Cause you're really my dearest friend

Jenny, take my hand

We are more than friends

I will follow you until the end

"The Studio Killers, right? Jenny?" Julie asked. She took the earbud out and handed it back to Luke.

"Yup." Luke nodded.

"I listened to that song on repeat for practically all of my eighth grade year." Julie told him.

"Yeah? Did you have a Jenny of your own?" Luke asked, a teasing lilt to his voice.

"You're gonna judge me if I tell you who." Julie said.

"Oh, wait, let me guess. Flynn?" Luke asked and Julie shook her head.

"Dang, I thought I had something there." Luke said.

"I mean, we are both bi, but no. We're just best friends." Julie said.

"Oh, hang on, what about that guy Nick?" Julie made a face at that.

"Where did you even get that one from?" Julie asked.

"I don't know, after seeing him shred on guitar yesterday, maybe I understand the jock with a hidden artistic talent appeal that TV constantly tries to sell us on." Luke said and Julie laughed.

"Okay, so Nick is your Jenny, got it." Julie said.

"No, I'm just saying- okay, don't change the subject. You're acting like I didn't see you stealing glances at him yesterday in Mrs. Harrison's class, or today during lunch." Luke said. Julie was confused for a moment and then realized what Luke must have seen.

"Right idea, wrong person." Julie said. Luke thought for a second about who else would be around Nick when he had seen Julie looking and then a look of realization came across his face.

"The spawn of Satan?" Luke asked incredulously.

"Okay, Flynn exaggerates when she says that. Sort of." Julie said and Luke gave her a look.

"I've been at this school for two days and I've already heard enough from that girl to hate her." Luke said.

"Honestly, that's fair. That's why I said you were gonna judge me. Carrie used to be one of my best friends though. She was even my first kiss." Julie said.

"What happened?" Luke asked.

"A lot. A healthy amount of gay panic and sheer avoidance of the subject on her end. Then she started going really hard with Dirty Candi and she got so focused on making sure they do well that she kinda dropped me and Flynn out of her life. It wasn't long after that that she got mean." Julie said.

"That really sucks, Jules, I'm sorry." Luke said.

"Yeah, well, anyway, that's my Jenny. You gonna make me guess yours?" Julie asked.

"Considering he very recently told me I was about as subtle as a car crash, I don't think you're gonna have to work too hard for that guess." Luke told her.

"Alex." Julie said and Luke nodded.

"Yup."

"Does he know how you feel?" Julie asked.

"To an extent. We actually dated for about a year, and he actually broke up with me a few months ago." Luke said. 

"And you're still this close?"

"We weren't gonna do anything to fuck with Sunset Curve. It was just for the best to revert to friendship and not make things awkward for Reggie or Bobby." Luke said. He had turned his head away, avoiding Julie's gaze. Julie could see in his face he was upset just talking about it.

"Hey." Julie nudged Luke's knee with her fist. He looked back at her.

"Yeah?"

"You know you're allowed to be upset, right? Just cause it was 'for the best' or whatever doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. Doesn't necessarily mean it's still for the best either." Julie said.

"Yeah. Thanks." Luke said, and Julie bumped her arm against his.

"No problem." She said.

Across the parking lot, Julie spotted Reggie and Alex approaching the van.

"Dude, where the hell were you? You missed like every afternoon class!" Reggie yelled out at Luke as he walked into earshot. Julie noticed Alex was lagging behind Reggie a ways and avoiding eye contact with Luke.

"I was working on band stuff, okay? I've got like this really great idea for what I wanna do with Julie for Bright and you can't tell me that's less important than fucking geometry, Reg." Luke said.

"Luke, my favorite idiot, we are at this school for band stuff. You didn't just skip geometry, you skipped music classes. Also, it's still only our second day, please do not get kicked out." Reggie said.

"I'm not gonna get kicked out!" Luke said. Reggie finally got up to the van and reached his hands out for Luke's to help him up off the ground. Luke stood up and Reggie offered his hands to Julie next. She accepted and Reggie helped her stand up.

"Jules, please back me up here." Reggie said.

"You gotta go to class, Luke. Do you really wanna be the next person Lessa kicks out of the music program?" Julie asked.

"Fine, I'll do better." Luke gave in.

"Good. Because we don't want to have to hatch a second elaborate plot to get you back into the program after Julie. Not that we won't- just that it'd be a lot of work and I don't want to." Reggie said.

"Speaking of our elaborate plot, Julie, are you ready to go kill this?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, let's go!" Julie said.

Reggie unlocked the van and they all got in, Reggie driving, Luke in the front passenger seat, and Julie and Alex in the backseat. Alex was quiet but Julie noticed the sidelong glances toward Luke.

"Hey. You okay?" Julie asked quietly. Reggie and Luke were arguing about the radio station Reggie had picked in the front so Julie's question went unnoticed by them.

"Yeah, of course." Alex said, too quickly. Julie gave him a disbelieving look, but didn't push it.

"Okay." She said. Julie offered her hand to Alex and with a small smile, Alex took it. Julie held his hand all the way back to her house, glad to be able to give some small amount of comfort.


	15. Chapter 15

So far as Reggie could tell, their writing session with Julie went pretty well. They already had a strong base for Bright and with Julie there, the finishing touches almost seemed to write themselves. Julie and Luke were definitely a song-writing dream team. Julie was somehow already fluent in Luke's musical language, something that Reggie still struggled to understand, and he had known Luke since they were four. But Reggie watched as Luke spoke in half-sentences, trailed off sometimes in the middle of a word, picking up where he left off with a guitar part that was somehow supposed to finish his thought, even if he hadn't even been talking about anything that seemed to naturally lead into the guitar, and Julie was right there nodding along and adding in piano.

Alex was being quieter than normal, and from what he had told Reggie about his and Luke's conversation earlier, Reggie wasn't going to blame him for not wanting to talk to Luke right now, but Alex did still contribute to the process. He mostly just addressed Julie or Reggie with his ideas though, and Reggie could see the hurt in Luke's face when Alex ignored or glossed over something that Luke said to him. They were going to have to get their shit together and talk, and it was going to have to be soon. Reggie could only hope when they did it would go better than Alex's attempt earlier that day.

When they finished up for the day, they had not just one, but two versions of Bright finished. One was all Julie and piano, for her to play at the spirit rally, and the other was a version that mixed Julie and Sunset Curve and Luke was trying to get Julie to agree to come play it with them whenever Sunset Curve booked their next gig. They were in the middle of this conversation when Julie's dad came into the studio.

"Alright, I'm starting dinner. Should I be planning to feed three extra mouths tonight?" Ray asked.

"Do you guys wanna stay?" Julie asked the boys and Reggie looked to Luke and Alex to see what they thought.

"I appreciate the offer, Mr. Molina, but I promised my mom I'd make it home for dinner tonight." Luke said. Reggie was disappointed. He had wanted to stay. Dinner with the Molinas sounded a lot better than going home to his parents.

"And if Luke has to go, Alex and I do too. We're his ride." Reggie said.

"Doesn't that van belong to all of y'all? Luke could drive himself home, and then we can give you guys a ride home later?" Julie suggested.

"Good plan, but I kinda don't have my license." Luke admitted. Julie looked at him with surprise.

"You own a third of a van and you don't have your license?" Julie asked.

"I never needed it! Alex and Reggie drive!" Luke said.

"He failed the test three times." Alex said and Luke shot him a glare.

"I don't test well." Luke muttered.

"Point being, if Luke has to get home, we're the ones getting him there." Reggie said, interrupting this conversation before it spiraled into an argument between Luke and Alex.

"Well, if you'd like, you boys could always come back after dropping Luke at home. I make a mean spaghetti, and there's always plenty to go around." Ray offered. From inside the house, they heard Carlos yelling at Ray that the pot of water on the stove was boiling over. Ray turned and rushed back inside and Julie rolled her eyes at her dad.

"Seriously, he may seem like a mess in the kitchen, but I promise the spaghetti is actually really good. And after you guys helping me out so much today, you're more than welcome at dinner." Julie said.

"Hey, you helped us too." Alex said.

"Seriously, Bright sounds awesome with all your help." Reggie said.

"It really does." Luke said.

"I guess this is where you guys have to leave to get Luke home?" Julie asked and Luke checked the time on his phone and then nodded to confirm.

"Would you guys want to come back and eat?" She asked Reggie and Alex. Reggie looked to Alex, a hopeful look in his eyes.

"We'd love to." Alex said and Reggie grinned.

"I'll tell Dad." Julie said, smiling as well.

"Julie, if it's okay with you, can I stay here while Reggie drops Luke off? I can help with dinner prep or something so I'm not just in the way." Alex said. Reggie figured this was more of him avoiding Luke as much as he could, and Julie, to her credit, seemed to notice that as well, briefly glancing over at Luke's slightly hurt face before telling him yes.

Reggie and Luke headed out, and Luke fiddled with his rings, not really talking much, even as Reggie talked about how well he and Julie had worked together all day. After a couple minutes of that, Reggie gave up on just trying to let him avoid the subject.

"What's going on with you and Alex?" Reggie asked.

"What? Nothing. It's fine, it's not gonna affect the band." Luke said quickly. Reggie rolled his eyes at that default response that had come out of Luke's mouth so many times before when Luke and Alex weren't doing well and then when they were breaking up.

"Do I seem like I care if it'll affect the band? Luke, I'm not Bobby. Fuck what it'll do to Sunset Curve, I'm worried about what's happening to my friends." Reggie said.

"Yeah. Yeah, of course. Sorry." Luke said.

"So?" Reggie asked.

"I know he talks to you, Reg. If I start talking to you too- I don't want to make you have to keep secrets or have to decide what you can or can't say." Luke said.

"Hey, I decide what I can handle. And I can handle helping both of my best friends." Reggie said. He glanced over at Luke and nudged his leg when he saw his hesitant face.

"I promise, Luke. I'm not gonna let you sit over here and suffer through this alone just because you think it'll be hard on me." Reggie said. He wished he wasn't driving so he could look Luke in the eyes while he said this, but no, he had to look at the road.

"Tomorrow, okay? Let's just get through Julie singing Bright, cause, honestly, I have no clue how that's going to make me feel, and I barely know how I feel already, so- Let's just get through tomorrow and then hopefully I will have enough of a grip on things to feel like I can talk about it without crying, yeah?" Luke said and Reggie reached out to offer him his hand. Luke took it in an instant and Reggie rubbed his thumb against Luke's, trying to use the motion to comfort. If he wasn't going to talk it out with Reggie tonight, Reggie could at least offer one of the other two comfort languages Luke loved, touch.

"Tomorrow works. You just can't do this all alone." Reggie said.

"Thanks, Reg." Luke said quietly.

"I love you, you know? Might not be like you and Alex, but you're still my family." Reggie said. Luke squeezed his hand in response.

"I love you too, Reggie."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hold the very strong belief that luke is a horrible driver and was unsuccessful in his many attempts to get his license


	16. Chapter 16

"So, what can I do to help out?" Alex asked after Luke and Reggie had left. Julie laughed and sat down on the couch, pulling on Alex's sweatshirt sleeve to bring him down with her.

"You're ridiculous if you think you actually have to help make dinner just in order to hang here. Also, Carlos is already in there with Dad, and when the two of them are in the kitchen together, it's safer to stay away. Carlos wanted to learn how to make pasta from scratch a couple months ago and I swear there's still flour on the ceiling." Julie said.

"There can't be a whole lot they can do with spaghetti though, right? If they're making it from the box and not from scratch?" Alex said.

"Carlos can find a way to make a mess. Trust me." Julie said.

"Younger siblings always can." Alex said with a laugh.

"Do you have one?" Julie asked and watched as Alex's face fell.

"Little sister. Sophie. She's fourteen." Alex said.

"Do you guys get along?" Julie asked.

"We did. I haven't seen her in a year, so. Who knows if we'd get along now." Alex shrugged, playing it off casually.

"Can I ask- What happened? Why haven't you seen her in so long?" Julie asked. Alex sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

"Okay, yeah. So, um, it's a simple answer, really, she lives with our parents, and they kicked me out last year and haven't actually let me contact her since. I'm a bad influence, you know. Couldn't possibly let her know that being gay isn't actually an immediate death sentence." Alex said.

"Alex, I'm so sorry. I knew you guys mentioned you staying with Reggie a few times, but I didn't realize that meant you didn't live with your parents." Julie said.

"You don't have to be sorry, Julie. It is what it is. I'm doing okay staying with Reggie at his parents' for now, and next month, Reggie and I both turn eighteen, and we're looking to get a place of our own. Between the two of us, we've got enough saved up for three or four months rent, depending on the place, and once Sunset Curve gets back to playing regular shows, we'll be making decent money again. If we're not making enough off our music, we get jobs at McDonald's or Walmart or somewhere. We've got a plan." Alex said and Julie could tell he was convincing himself as much as her.

"How many times a week do you make Reggie go through that plan with you?" Julie teased, gently knocking her fist against his knee. Alex smiled.

"At least eight. There's a few other contingency plans as well. A whole sub section of the plan for in case Sophie gets kicked out too or actually makes good on her constant childhood threat to run away, I can take care of her."

"You seem like a good big brother." Julie said.

"I always tried to be." Alex said.

"I'm sure you're amazing." Julie said sincerely and Alex offered a small smile.

"Okay, subject change? Extended amounts of family talk will make me emotional, especially if you keep being supportive like that." Alex said. Julie smiled and reached out to squeeze his hand before moving on as requested.

"I don't know how much this will help, but do you want to talk about whatever was going on with you and Luke tonight?" Julie asked.

"Oh god, that is barely a better subject." Alex groaned.

"Come on, I just sat through almost four hours of you basically ignoring him and him staring at you with his sad puppy dog eyes. I deserve at least a little bit of context for that." Julie said.

"The context is that Luke Patterson is a stubborn bastard." Alex said.

"I mean, yeah, I figured that out basically immediately." Julie rolled her eyes.

"Something's going on with him these past few weeks, especially in the last couple days, and he's decided he doesn't want to talk about it, so he won't. No, actually, that's not entirely true. He _started_ to talk to me last night while Reggie was driving you home, and then I stupidly tried to avoid a question about us and now he's just saying things when we're alone and then refusing to elaborate at all, which he has to know is just making my anxious thoughts go into overdrive." Alex explained.

"You know he's not trying to make you anxious on purpose though." Julie said and Alex sighed.

"Yeah, I know. Doesn't make it any less frustrating though." Alex said.

"I get that, but you realize that by just ignoring him while he does this, you are becoming an additional stubborn bastard and making it even less likely that he'll be able to talk to you about this?" Julie pointed out.

"Don't be reasonable, Julie, I'm trying to be petty and passive-aggressive." Alex complained.

"You can be petty and passive-aggressive all you want, you just can't complain tomorrow when the situation has only gotten worse." Julie said, prodding Alex's knee.

"I've only known you for a day, how do I already hate it when you're right?" Alex asked and Julie smirked.

"It's the big sister energy." Julie said.

"I hate it." Alex said and Julie smiled.

"Sure you do."

It was then that Ray poked his head back into the garage.

"Just one extra mouth?" Ray asked.

"No, Reggie's coming back. He and Luke left maybe ten or fifteen minutes ago, so I'd give it about fifteen til he's back." Julie told her dad.

"Any food allergies or anything? I know, I should've asked that earlier." Ray said and Alex shook his head.

"No, sir, no food allergies." Alex said.

"And you would know for Reggie as well, yes?" Ray double-checked.

"I've seen him eat almost every food under the sun, Mr. Molina, with no hesitation. I would know." Alex said.

"Every food under the sun? I feel like there are stories here." Julie said with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, plenty. There was a whole year in middle school where Luke and Reggie would come up with different gross food inventions to get the other one to eat. It was disgusting. Also, we've all gotten food from multiple street vendors that probably should've killed us or at least given us food poisoning. Reggie has never had a single bad reaction to the food, even when Luke and I end up with stomachaches." Alex said.

"Stomach of steel. I can respect that." Ray said.

"Do you and Carlos need any help, Papi?" Julie asked.

"If you want to come set the table, I'd appreciate it." Ray said and Julie nodded.

"Just a minute and we'll be right inside." Julie said and Ray nodded and walked back inside the house. Julie reached her hand out for Alex's as he turned his attention back to her.

"Listen, I'll just say this one time tonight, and once I have, we can ignore this conversation and just have a nice dinner with Reggie and my family. You need to talk to Luke, without any petty or passive-aggression, and you need to tell him how _you_ feel. And no, I don't just mean tell him you're feeling anxious and frustrated about him not telling you what he's going through, I mean give him actual real thoughts and emotions. You can't expect him to give it to you without you giving to him first." Julie said.

"Okay, yeah. I'll do it, we'll talk." Alex promised.

"Tomorrow?" Julie said.

"Tomorrow." Alex confirmed.

With that handled, Julie stood up and led Alex into the house where they set the table for dinner, and waited for Reggie to return and for dinner to be done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have a sprinkle of alex backstory, continued lalex drama, and julie/alex bonding time. this chapter took FOREVER because i rewrote it approximately 4 times and i'm honestly still not happy with it. remember when i was putting out a chapter a day? haha, yeah, me too, what happened to THAT level of inspiration?


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're skipping ahead to the spirit rally so i don't end up spending more than 20 chapters on what is 2 episodes in the show. may come back and write a one-shot for alex and reggie having their first molina family dinner but for now, let's just get jatp together on stage. also, nick has a band now because the boys aren't ghosts and can't poof their instruments on stage, and having a performance from another band whose instruments the boys could borrow on very short notice made the most sense to me. i probably won't go much further into his band because it would require creating and writing ocs for all his bandmates and i hate having a bunch of ocs in a fic but if you wanna hear what i think nick's band would sound like, listen to the naked and famous. chose them bc sacha carlson gives me low-key thom powers vibes and no i can't explain why

Luke's leg was bouncing while he sat in the gym with Alex and Reggie and waiting for Julie to arrive. Flynn had gone to go find her more than ten minutes before and they were now both missing. They had already watched a performance from the dance team, the cheerleading squad, and Nick's band, and now Carrie's group was about to take the floor and from what Flynn had told them, that meant the rally was almost over. Reggie put his hand on Luke's leg to still the anxious movement.

"Chill, man. She'll get here." Reggie said, but their was a look in his eyes like he wasn't entirely sure either.

"But what if she doesn't? What if she doesn't get her moment to prove she belongs here, that she can do this-" What was about to become a rambling rant from Luke was cut off by Flynn and Julie rushing in.

"Are we too late?" Julie asked and the Luke hopped up from his seat to swing an arm around her shoulders.

"Just in time. Carrie's on now." Luke said, squeezing her in his little half-hug.

"Are you ready?" Reggie asked.

"Not at all. That's normal though, right? Like, I'll get up there and start playing and I'll just be fine, right?" Julie asked.

"Absolutely you will." Flynn told her.

"Are we really sure this is the plan?" Julie asked and Alex moved to her side and took her hand.

"You don't have to if you don't want to, Jules. But, for the record, if you get up on that stage, you are going to absolutely kill it." Alex said. She looked up at him and smiled.

"Thanks." Julie said.

Dirty Candi finished up their performance and Flynn nudged Julie.

"Now's your chance! Get up there!"

"There is a piano on that stage with your name on it, Julie Molina." Reggie said, gently pushing her toward the stage. Julie looked from the stage to her friends around her.

"You've got this, I promise." Luke said as Julie hesitated.

"You'll save me if I start drowning, yeah?" Julie asked and Luke squeezed her shoulder.

"At a moment's notice." Luke promised.

"Can you guys come with me? To the wings, I mean. I just feel like I'd feel better knowing you're right there." Julie asked and all four of her friends nodded and followed her to the wings as Principal Lessa wrapped up her remarks. Nick and his band were in the wings, packing up some of their equipment from their performance, and they shot the group questioning looks as Luke, Reggie, Alex, and Flynn all pushed Julie toward the stage.

"Hey, Josh, Julie's gonna use your keyboard, okay? Thanks!" Flynn said, not even waiting for a response from the guy she had said that to.

Principal Lessa had just finished her remarks and they were really at the moment of now or never. Julie took a deep breath and walked onto the stage, sitting at the keyboard and starting to play. Her finger tripped on a note and she shot a panicked look to the wings, but her friends were all there just hyping her up to keep going. Nick moved to join the group at the edge of the stage, standing next to Luke.

"Oh my god, Julie's playing?" Nick said and Luke grinned.

"Damn right she is." Luke said.

Julie started again, and Luke could feel his heart swell as she started singing. She sounded amazing and it was almost enough to make Luke forget what song she was singing. Students started paying attention and gathering around the stage and Luke saw as Julie caught Carrie's eye in the audience. Julie kept singing, but she glanced back at her friends in the wings with a nervous look in her eyes.

"She's panicking." Nick said under his breath. He shot a glance over to Flynn and caught her gaze.

"Carrie's out there." He explained.

"Nick, can I borrow your guitar?" Luke asked, quickly forming a plan in his head to keep Julie going and fulfill his promise to keep her from drowning.

"What-" Nick started to ask but Flynn quickly shot him down.

"Don't ask, Nick, just trust."

"Yeah, man, sure, it's still plugged in on stage." Nick said.

"Reggie, figure out who to ask for the bass, Alex, I know you've got your sticks in your pocket. It's gonna be a little later than we had played it yesterday but we can come in on-"

"Come on let's run." Alex said, immediately on the same page as Luke.

Reggie had grabbed Nick while Luke was still talking and was now coming back to the group with a quick "Thanks!" to a girl in Nick's band.

"We're good." Reggie told them.

"Come on let's run?" Luke confirmed one more time and got a nod from each of the boys before running out on stage, and grabbing instruments. Luke swung the guitar strap over his head and had a pick in his hand just in time to hit in with Julie on beat with Alex and Reggie. Julie looked surprised but thrilled at the boys' presence on stage, standing from the keyboard, taking the mic in hand and moving to come sing in the center of the stage, joining Luke as he walked towards her with an encouraging grin. She finished the chorus and brought the mic away from her mouth, using the break in lyrics to speak to Luke.

"Thanks for the back-up." Julie said.

"We've got you." He said, smiling at her as he moved away to get to his mic to sing the next verse.

As Luke sang, he looked over to see Julie dancing with Reggie and Alex, having immediately shifted from her nervousness to that carefree demeanor they had all had in the studio the day before. Luke locked eyes with Reggie and nodded him over, singing the next few lines together with him, and watching out of the corner of his eye as Julie turned to crowd, hyping them all up. As the chorus hit in again, Luke and Julie sang together, out to an audience that was loving them. Luke watched Julie as she seemed to perfectly find herself at home on stage, performing her heart out to the whole school. He started in on the first half of the bridge and Julie walked over to him, holding her mic out as an invitation that he gladly took, moving to center stage with her, singing into her mic. She took the second half of the bridge and Luke stayed right there with her, playing his guitar part and hyping her up. Their final chorus they all sang together, but Julie outshone all the boys on stage with her, bringing confidence and power to her vocals that shocked Luke in the best way possible. If he had any doubt before that Julie wasn't amazing, it was gone now.

When they finished the song and took a bow together, Flynn and Nick were cheering the loudest out of everyone in the gym. Julie looked over at her friends in the wings and grinned, momentarily forgetting any of her current concerns and basking in the moment after a performance well-done. They all exited the stage and rejoined Flynn in the wings.

"You guys, that was so good!" Flynn said.

"Julie, you killed that." Reggie said, grinning at her.

"Let's hope Principal Lessa agrees." Julie said, her nervousness starting to return ever so slightly.

"There's no way she won't." Alex said.

"You were so amazing, Jules." Luke assured her.

They all walked Julie back into the gym where Mrs. Harrison was standing and waiting, a look on her face that was equal parts stern and proud. Julie shared a nervous glance with her friends and walked over to her teacher.

"Mrs. Harrison, I am so sorry for not asking permission. I just wanted to show you I belong here." Julie said.

"As amazing as that was, your spot has already been filled by another student. I wish that I could help you, but my hands are tied." Mrs. Harrison said and Luke watched as Julie's face fell. On impulse, he stepped up behind her.

"So untie them! Make room for her! You know she deserves it, she's better than most of the people here! Hell, I'll drop out right now if it means Julie gets her spot back in the music program." Luke exclaimed. Mrs. Harrison raised an eyebrow at Luke's outburst.

"As much as I appreciate your enthusiasm, Luke, I don't have the power you think I have. The situation is genuinely out of my hands, and out of yours, so don't go dropping out of high school again on an impulse." Mrs. Harrison said.

"The situation is, however, completely in my hands." Principal Lessa said, having finished herding students toward the gym exit and now joining Mrs. Harrison with the kids.

"Now, I don't want to imply in any way that I approved of this little stunt that you pulled, because I didn't, but with that being said, I refuse to go down in history as the principal that kicked Julie Molina out of the music program." Principal Lessa said and Julie grinned as she realized what she meant.

"Thank you!" Julie said.

"But! When you and your group here win your first Grammy, I want to be thanked." Principal Lessa said and Julie exchanged glances and grins with the boys around her.

"Definitely." Luke said, wrapping his arm around Julie to pull her into a half-hug.

"Thank you so much, Principal Lessa." Julie thanked her again. Principal Lessa gave her a small smile and walked away. Mrs. Harrison grinned.

"Congratulations! Oh, welcome back, Julie!" Mrs. Harrison said, pulling her into a quick hug and giving her a thumbs up before she walked after Principal Lessa. Julie turned back to her friends and gave them all an excited grin.

"Guys, we did it!" Julie said and her friends all pulled her into a huge group hug.


	18. Chapter 18

As the group walked out into the hall to head to their next classes, Julie and the boys kept getting caught by people wanting to tell them how amazing they had been. Luke and Reggie were loving it, talking to anyone who stopped them, while Alex stuck by Flynn and Julie's sides as Julie brushed people off with quick thanks, and Flynn drew attention away from her, telling everyone who tried to talk to her to follow Julie's and Sunset Curve's instagrams for any music updates. She had been preparing to be Julie's manager for years, and clearly the addition of Sunset Curve was an easy adjustment for her to make. Julie noticed she had even picked up on Reggie's 'Tell your friends' tagline. Both Julie and Alex appreciated Flynn's innate ability to direct attention away from them.

"Julie! You guys went down to talk to Mrs. Harrison before I could tell you, that was so awesome!" Nick said, breaking away from his group of friends to talk to Julie. Nick was always sweet and one person who Julie didn't mind talking to for a minute, and she had started to thank him, when Carrie chose that same moment to come away from Dirty Candi and approach Julie as well.

"Yeah, Julie, it was way better than when you cried and ran out." Carrie said. Julie heard Luke and Reggie stop talking at the same moment behind her, and suddenly she was surrounded on all sides by her friends.

"What did you just say to her?" Luke asked, his voice frighteningly low and steady and Julie shot him a warning look.

"Luke, don't." Julie said.

"No, please, let me hear what your band of high school drop-outs has to say. I absolutely value the opinion of three idiots who spent a year thinking their mediocre rock band was more important than the base level of education." Carrie said and both Julie and Flynn glanced to the boys, trying to figure out if Carrie was full of shit. The rage on Luke's face, genuine hurt on Reggie's, and Alex's worried glances between Luke and Reggie told them everything they needed to know.

"Who told you that?" Luke asked, his jaw set in anger.

"What, you think I didn't do my homework when three new kids come in to the program out of nowhere, mid-year? I like knowing who my competition is. Who to worry about, who to... never give a second thought." Carrie said.

"You do realize this program isn't a competition, right? We're all just here to learn." Alex said, attempting to be the peacemaker.

"This program gives us connections and, on occasion, opportunities to perform for major players in the music industry. You're even more of an idiot than I thought if you're not trying to be the best. I worked hard to get where I am now. Pardon me if I resent people who don't put in a similar amount of effort but expect to be in a similar place." Carrie said, looking at all of them but letting her gaze linger on Julie. Flynn stepped in front of Julie, crossing her arms and glaring at Carrie.

"As if you would know what effort Julie has put in this year, or anything at all about what she went through. You weren't there, Carrie. All you saw was class. I was there for the rest of it." Flynn said and for a brief moment, Carrie's tough exterior broke down as she gave Julie an almost concerned look. It was gone almost as soon as it appeared though, and Carrie was glaring at Flynn. She didn't have an immediate response though, and Nick took the opportunity to step forward and take her arm.

"Hey, we should get to science." Nick said.

"Fine. Let's go." Carrie said, sparing Julie one last glance before turning on her heel and walking away. Nick gave them all an apologetic look before walking after her.

"Hey, that was kind of harsh." Nick was saying as he walked after Carrie.

"Calling her the spawn of Satan is an exaggeration, huh?" Luke said to Julie, referencing their conversation from the day before.

"I told you, she didn't use to be that bad." Julie said.

"Okay, I know why you do it, but you have got to stop defending her, Jules. I genuinely don't know how Nick still puts up with her shit." Flynn said.

"How did she even find out we dropped out? We didn't tell anyone." Reggie asked Luke and Alex.

"Her friend Kayla? Her mom is the vice principal. She's constantly overhearing faculty gossip and running straight to Carrie with it. Bet you ten bucks that's what happened." Flynn told them.

"Fuck." Luke cursed under his breath.

"Hey, it's okay. I bet you Carrie is the only person who even cares." Flynn said.

"I can guarantee you we don't. Whatever path you took to get here, it got you to us, and it got us on that stage where we just absolutely killed it." Julie said.

"We did, didn't we?" Reggie said with a grin.

"You guys were amazing. People are already asking when you're playing together again." Flynn said. Luke looked back and forth between his bandmates and Julie.

"Do you wanna play together again?" Luke asked.

"I don't know, I mean- it was kind of amazing, right?" Julie said.

"It was perfect, Jules." Reggie said.

"Kinda felt like we were meant to play together." Alex said with a smile.

"It's up to you, Julie, but the invitation is out there." Luke said. The bell rang and students around them started moving toward their next classes.

"I'll think about it, okay?" Julie said.

"I'll take that." Luke said.

"We gotta get to history, Jules, we've got a test." Flynn said.

"I'll see you guys at lunch, okay?" Julie said and the boys nodded.

"See you then!" Reggie said as Flynn and Julie walked off in one direction and the boys headed the other way to get to their next classes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> writing carrie in this chapter was basically me at my keyboard with that john mulaney quote on repeat in my head, "my wife is a bitch and i love her SO MUCH"
> 
> but also i really hope shes not so much of a bitch that she cant be redeemed


	19. Chapter 19

Nick caught Julie outside the cafeteria as she was starting to head in for lunch.

"Hey, Julie, I just wanted to apologize for earlier. Carrie was pissed off and you know how she gets." Nick said.

"Thanks, Nick. This apology would probably mean a lot more coming from her, but you know, I appreciate this too." Julie said.

"I know, it's just- I wish she would still be like her old self with you. I feel like I'm the only one who gets to see that side of Carrie anymore." Nick said.

"Well, you are dating. It makes sense you'd see a different side of her than the rest of us." Julie shrugged and Nick gave her a strange look.

"We're not dating, Julie." Nick said.

"Oh! Dang, sorry, I should know better than to take rumors at face value- I just figured, you guys are still so close and you kinda act like a couple-" Julie started saying but Nick interrupted her.

"And I'm so not Carrie's type. From what she's told me, you know that better than anyone." Nick said with a pointed look at Julie.

"She told you about that?" Julie asked, surprised Carrie would have opened up at all about her sexuality. She was so insistent about keeping it a secret the one time Julie had been able to talk to her about it after they had kissed.

"After she stopped talking to you and Flynn, I was kinda the only person she could tell. I guess I became the default best friend, from lack of options more than anything else." Nick said.

"You say that like you're not a ridiculously kind and supportive person. Anyone would be lucky to have you as a best friend." Julie said and Nick smiled.

"Thanks, Julie. Which, I should offer, if you ever need someone to talk to about her, someone who understands, you can talk to me. I'm around." Nick said.

"Thanks. I really appreciate it, Nick. I might text you later and take you up on that, okay? But right now, it looks like I'm being waved down." Julie said, having caught Reggie's eye from down the hallway, and was now watching him and Luke and Alex approach, Reggie walking ahead of the other boys and waving to grab her attention. She waved back and Nick turned and saw the boys as well.

"Those guys really have become your biggest fans in just a couple days." Nick noted with a smile.

"Yeah. They're kinda awesome." Julie said. Reggie swung his arm around her as he reached her and Nick, giving her a half-hug.

"Who's awesome?" Reggie asked.

"Oh, just this band I met this week. I think they're called Sunset Swerve?" Julie teased, and Reggie took great mock offense, ending their hug and taking a dramatic step back away from her.

"Excuse me, it's Sunset _Curve_." Reggie said.

"Oh, I'll make sure to tell my friends." Julie said with a grin and Reggie laughed.

"I'll let you guys get to lunch." Nick said, excusing himself from the conversation.

"Oh, did you wanna join us? We're not picky about lunch buddies." Reggie offered and Nick smiled but shook his head no.

"I told Jessie, the girl who's bass you borrowed earlier, I'd meet her at lunch to go over this project we've got coming up in Music Production. We're way behind, so I think I'm eating lunch in the computer lab with her probably every day this week." Nick said.

"That sucks. Good luck with your project though!" Reggie said and with a brief thanks and goodbye, Nick walked off toward the computer lab. Alex and Luke finally caught up with Reggie, having stopped a ways away from them in the hall to have a brief hushed conversation just between the two of them.

"You guys good?" Julie asked and they nodded.

"Yep. We ready for lunch?" Alex asked and Julie nodded and they all walked into the cafeteria together and got their food. They sat down at a table together, Reggie and Julie on one side, Alex and Luke on the other. Reggie and Julie glanced at the boys across from them, who were acting surprisingly friendly, and shared a look of surprise.

"We agreed to talk later, okay? That's all." Luke said, noticing Reggie and Julie's shared little moment.

"I wasn't gonna say anything, but okay. Good for y'all, you need that." Julie said.

"Now that that's out of the way, can we talk about playing together again? That was so sick earlier, the audience loved us, and last night, working on Bright, we flowed like a dream. C'mon Julie, you gotta feel it too." Luke said.

"It's basically impossible not to feel it, Luke. You're right, we work well together. I have some songs I haven't really been able to touch lately, but if you want, you guys could come over after school tomorrow and we could try to work on them together." Julie suggested.

"Yeah! We would love to." Reggie said.

"I've got some Sunset Curve stuff we could go over too!" Luke said excitedly.

"Don't forget, we've also gotta rehearse that performance for Mrs. Harrison's class. I know we could all probably do Now or Never in our sleep at this point, but still, it doesn't hurt to go over it the night before we actually have to do it for a grade." Alex reminded Reggie and Luke.

"Man, I'm so fucking excited! We're on the verge of something great, I just know it." Luke said and Julie noted that his passion was contagious. The grin on his face made all three of the others at the table smile too. It was impossible not to believe Luke.

"You guys are gonna be legends." Julie said with a smile.

"We all are, Jules, you included." Luke said, bumping her hand with his fist.

"Your voice? Heaven-sent." Reggie added.

"You hold crazy amounts of power on a stage, Julie." Alex said.

"Okay." Julie rolled her eyes, trying to brush off the compliments.

"Oh, don't make me give you the Alex pep-talk." Reggie said and Julie gave him a curious look.

"What is the Alex pep-talk?" Julie asked and Reggie turned to completely face her.

"You are an amazing musician. You know it, I know it, Luke knows it, Alex knows it. You were _killing_ it on that stage and I need you to take a second and fucking own your awesomeness, Jules! Now, can I get an 'I was killing it'?" Reggie asked.

"Do I have to?" Julie asked.

"Yes." Reggie and Luke immediately responded at the same time.

"He will not leave you alone until you do." Alex told Julie.

"Okay, fine, I was killing it." Julie said half-heartedly.

"Okay, that was sad." Reggie said.

"We need an 'I was _killing_ it!'" Luke said and Julie rolled her eyes but she couldn't help the smile on her face.

"Okay, I was _killing_ it!" Julie exclaimed and Reggie, Luke, and Alex gave her a small round of applause.

"Damn right you were! And you are gonna continue to kill it at every show you ever play, every rehearsal you ever rehearse, every songwriting session you ever do, because you have more talent in your pinky than most people have at all! You're Julie fucking Molina!" Reggie said.

"My middle name is actually Rose, but okay."

"And my middle name is Logan, a fact Reggie has known for years, but that doesn't stop him from calling me Alex fucking Mercer every time he does this pep-talk." Alex said.

"It's an important part of the speech, Alex, and you know that." Reggie said.

"I get the point! I'm amazing, I killed it, I'm owning my awesomeness." Julie said.

"You deserve nothing less than the best, Jules." Reggie said, taking her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Thanks, Reg." Julie smiled.

"Literally anytime." Reggie smiled in response.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is it, boys. its been a hot minute since the last (failed) attempt to talk, but its finally time for lalex to try again.

Alex didn't miss how pointedly Reggie asked to join Julie and Flynn's study plans that afternoon after school, and how insistent he was that Alex and Luke take the van. He knew Luke didn't miss it either, and now there was a pressure on this conversation, that it had to fix things between them, because Reggie was expecting it to and neither of them would forgive themselves if they let down Reggie. They could let down each other, they could let down themselves, but Reggie was the heart of their friendship and he did not deserve to have to deal with the fallout of their bad choices. And Julie and Flynn, as new as they were to their lives, didn't deserve it either.

"Ready to go?" Luke's voice broke Alex out of his thoughts, and he quickly double checked his backpack to make sure he had everything he needed, and shut his locker. He turned to Luke and gave him a hesitant smile.

"Let's do it."

They walked out to the student parking lot together, mostly silent. They both felt the weight of the moment.

"Where do you wanna go?" Luke asked.

"I don't know. Wherever I guess. Somewhere quiet." Alex said.

"My parents won't be home for a couple hours." Luke suggested and Alex nodded.

"Works for me." They got into the van and Alex started driving towards Luke's house.

Luke was quiet, but the boy was never actually still. Alex could see him in his periphery, fidgeting with his rings, shifting his leg up to let his foot rest on the car seat, and back down again, crossing his legs and uncrossing them, playing with the frayed edge of his coat and dropping it back into his lap. Alex reached his hand out and offered it to Luke, a silent peace offering. There was a moment's hesitation, and then Luke took his hand. At a stop light, Alex dared to look over at him and they shared a small smile. Luke played with Alex's rings as he held his hand and the familiarity of the feeling was comforting to Alex. After they had broken up, there were certain physical boundaries they had an unspoken agreement not to casually cross, but god, Alex had missed the simple act of Luke messing with his rings. He parked outside of Luke's house and Luke dropped his hand so that they could get out of the van and Alex immediately missed the weight of Luke's hand on his. They walked inside together and Luke led them to his room, closing his door behind them for the off chance either of his parents got off work early. Alex sat down on the corner of Luke's bed and Luke stayed standing where he was, leaning against the closed door.

"So, we have to do this." Luke said and Alex hated how sad Luke's eyes were.

"Yeah. We have to do this." Alex said.

"I don't- I don't think I can start." Luke said and Alex nodded. He remembered Julie's words the night before. He had to tell Luke how he was feeling if he expected Luke to do the same in return. He could do that. He could keep it together for both of them.

"That's okay. I can. I, um- I think we-" Alex paused, already starting to get choked up. The way Luke was looking at him felt like their break-up all over again and Alex immediately knew he was not going to be able to keep it together for both of them.

"Alex-" Luke's voice broke and tears started falling down Alex's face.

"No, you can't do that, Luke, you can't-" Alex started saying and in an instant Luke had moved the couple of feet over to Alex and was on the bed beside him, wiping the tears from Alex's cheeks and pulling him into a hug.

"Alex, please." Luke mumbled against Alex's shoulder. Alex could feel his shirt getting damp and knew he wasn't the only one crying. Luke was pleading and Alex didn't know for what.

"Luke, we-" Alex tried to start again and Luke pulled back to be able to see his face as he interrupted.

"You can't leave me. You cannot- Alex, I need you. I know I wasn't good enough, I know I didn't deserve you, but please, just don't say what I think you're going to, because I will not survive it a second time, Alex, I can't." Alex's heart broke as he realized what Luke thought was coming. He brought his hand to Luke's face, echoing his action of wiping his tears away. Luke leaned into Alex's touch and Alex let his hand linger there, not wanting to take it away.

"Luke, you are the most amazing person I know. I fell in love with you when we were tiny and running around on the playground with Reggie, and I have never stopped being in love with you since. Not when we fought every day for a month, not when we broke up, not now. You think you wouldn't survive us not talking? How the fuck do you think I'd fare?" Alex asked.

"Alex, baby-" Alex's heart skipped a beat when Luke used the old pet name and fuck, it felt like it stopped altogether when Luke's lips were suddenly on Alex's and Luke was pulling him closer, holding onto Alex as though he'd disappear if he let go. Alex wasn't complaining, wasn't going to even attempt to slow or stop this kiss. He had spent months without this feeling and he suddenly felt like he had been dehydrated for so long that he hadn't even realized it, and Luke's kiss was the first sip of water he'd had in ages. There was an immediate realization of what he'd been missing and he was desperate for more. Alex didn't know how long it was before Luke was pulling back with a gasping breath and Alex was breathing deeply as well, unsure of how long it had been since either of them had taken a breath.

"That is not what Reggie and Julie meant when they told us to talk." Alex said, leaning in for another kiss, just a brief brush of lips against each other this time as they both were catching their breath.

"I'm in love with you, Alex, how's that?" Luke said. Alex just nodded.

"That's good. I really like that." Alex said.

"I only want you, and I'm completely fucking terrified. I can't lose you." Luke said.

"You won't, Luke. It's not possible. I just need you to actually talk to me about things, I need to know where you're at, because you know I can't guess or I'm going directly to worst case scenarios." Alex said.

"Alex, I- I let you down before, and I wasn't there for you how you needed me and you have to know how sorry I am." Luke said.

"What are you talking about?" Alex asked, genuinely confused.

"When your parents kicked you out, I didn't fucking listen to you. I just pushed you headfirst into the music with me because that's what I would have needed and I didn't listen when you told me it wasn't what you needed. I didn't even process that that's what you were telling me until it was too late and you had broken up with me and I was sitting there trying to figure out what went wrong." Luke told him.

"Luke, are you- Do you still feel guilty about that?" Alex asked, shocked.

"I pushed you too hard, I'm always doing that-"

"Okay, you know what I remember of that time? You tried to help me. I felt like I was drowning, and you were there, trying to help me. No, it didn't work, but you tried, and that was enough for me. You didn't know how best to help, because I didn't know how to ask, but you still _tried_." Alex told him.

"I never stopped trying. Even when I got stupid and defensive, all I wanted was you to be okay." Luke said.

"And I'm really sorry I made you get stupid and defensive. I was being stupid and accusatory. I know you weren't cheating on me, I know you weren't lying when you told me you'd never even think of it, I was just so fucking anxious." Alex said.

"And I didn't do anything to help that-" Luke started and Alex cut him off again.

"Once again, I was really awful at asking for help at all!" Alex exclaimed.

"I should have known." Luke insisted.

"Maybe. And maybe I should've asked better. Either way, it's in the past, and unless we plan on making these same communication errors again, I really don't care. I want you back." Alex said.

"I want you back too." Luke said.

"So, that's it. We're back. We agree to work harder to communicate, not let each other get stupid, and actually face the feelings we're having, even if they're shitty ones." Alex said.

"I can agree to that." Luke said, a smile beginning on his face.

"We're back?" Alex smiled.

"We're back." Luke confirmed, leaning forward and kissing Alex again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also, for the fucking record, this fic started with luke waking up on monday morning. this chapter (CHAPTER TWENTY.) takes place on wednesday afternoon. i have spent TWENTY CHAPTERS on THREE DAYS. this aint a slow burn, y'all, i'm just a wordy bitch


	21. Chapter 21

"Do you think Alex and Luke killed each other?" Julie asked as she looked down at her phone and sent her second attempt at a low-key check-in text. Reggie rolled his eyes.

"Alex would never." Reggie said.

"But Luke...?" Flynn said, giving Reggie a questioning look.

"Would also never! Probably." Reggie said, appending the 'Probably,' as an afterthought. As much as Luke would never intentionally hurt Alex, he did get caught up in his passion frequently.

"Should we be worried?" Julie asked.

"Give them a couple more hours. They're probably fine." Reggie said.

"I'm worried about your use of 'probably.'" Julie said.

"C'mon, just try not to think about it. I notice you're completely ignoring the homework you arranged this study date for." Flynn said, prodding Julie's arm with her pencil.

"Ugh, yeah. Biology." Julie made a face.

"Is it even really worth studying? I mean, c'mon, we could be writing right now. I just know you've got something you're working on in your head right now, Jules, you're doing the same thing Alex does when he's thinking about a song." Reggie said, tapping out the beat Julie had been drumming on the kitchen table for the last hour.

"Wait, is that- Reggie, do that again." Flynn said.

"This?" Reggie asked, tapping out the beat. Flynn gave Julie a look of realization.

"Hey, yeah, we got the music,

Back inside, let's do this,

Back like it's exclusive, wavy like a cruise ship,

Look at Julie go, she all in the zone,

Headlining the show, mic drop and we go-" Flynn rapped to the beat drummed out for her. Reggie gave her a round of applause as she stopped her verse.

"Hey, that was awesome!" Reggie said. Flynn grinned at him, but her attention was mostly on Julie.

"I knew I recognized that beat. Are you working on Double Trouble songs right now?" Flynn asked.

"Working on is a strong word. It's that one, and it's just been stuck in my head since I got back into music. It is ridiculously appropriate for the situation, you know." Julie said.

"It is, and that's why we should finish it! You're writing again, and I'm always down to work on a song with you." Flynn said.

"I'm on Flynn's side. What's stopping us from finishing this song right now?" Reggie asked. Julie thought about it for a second, glancing out the kitchen window towards the studio.

"Screw it, you're right. I'm not getting this biology worksheet done right now either way. Let's go." Julie said, standing and leading them out to the studio, Flynn letting out a cheer of success. Julie settled down at her keyboard and Flynn opened her laptop and iPad that she had brought out with her, opening Logic on both of them.

"What are you doing?" Reggie asked, curiously looking over Flynn's shoulder.

"Oh, I'm gonna make the drum beat Jules was tapping out. Then we can build instruments from there." Flynn said.

"You seriously know how this stuff works?" Reggie said, slightly awe-struck as he watched Flynn pull up a new session and start recording the drum beat.

"Yeah, Reggie, I mean, you know I'm in advanced music production right now, right? This is the kinda stuff I wanna do after school." Flynn said.

"She's amazing at it too." Julie added and Flynn smiled.

"Damn right I am."

"This is so cool, I've never really seen this side of music making." Reggie said.

"Pull up a chair then, and watch a master at work." Flynn said, patting the sofa next to her. Reggie sat down and Flynn explained what she was doing as she did it, giving him a brief crash course in Logic. She finished the drum beat and played it back for Julie, getting her approval before moving on to record Julie's piano. The only mics they had on hand were their phones but they made it work, recording the piano portion on Flynn's phone so she could pull it into the session and layer it in with the drums.

"Am I the only one get an almost marching band like vibe from that drum beat?" Julie asked as Flynn played it back again to listen to how the drums and piano mixed.

"That's exactly what it is! I've been trying to put my finger on it for a minute!" Reggie agreed.

"Oh my god, Flynn, you've gotta layer some brass into this. It'd match the beat perfectly and hello, excuse for you to shine with your trumpet skills." Julie said.

"Oh, dope, yeah, I can definitely drop that in later." Flynn said excitedly. They dove into the vocal tracks and Reggie chimed in with some suggested lyric tweaks and some background vocals and Flynn added everything into the session, doing some basic editing and mixing and a couple hours later, they had a good demo for I Got The Music. Flynn was talking about using the song for her advanced music production midterm and doing actual recordings for it and they were all passing ideas back and forth as to how they could improve the demo when Reggie got a text from Luke.

Message from: Luke

so

i promised we'd talk today too

Message from: Reggie

you and alex done talking?

Message from: Luke

yeah we're good. i promise.

i know you were worried

Message from: Reggie

we're at julie's still if you wanna come by.

or tell alex to come get me

or i could ask ray for a ride if alex needs to be alone

Message from: Luke

alex doesnt need to be alone

i just told you we're good

Message from: Reggie

yeah and i don't know what that means yet!

technically you've been "good" for months

Message from: Luke

hang on

For a moment, Reggie wasn't sure what he was waiting on, but then Luke sent a video of himself fully on top of Alex's lap, and it looked like he was attempting to press a kiss to Alex's lips but Alex was laughing and pushing him away.

"Baby, c'mere- Lemme show Reggie what I meant!" Luke was saying in the video.

"No- No, Reggie doesn't need to see this! Luke, c'mon-" Alex was cut off as he pushed at Luke's hand that was holding the camera and the video abruptly ended.

"Oh my god!" Reggie said excitedly. Flynn and Julie both looked up at him, concerned, but he ignored them for a moment to quickly text Luke back. He had hoped the talk would go well but them getting back together was not what he had expected. 

Message from: Reggie

WHAT THE FUCK.

YOURE BACK TOGETHER

"Are you good?" Flynn asked.

"Alex and Luke!" Reggie exclaimed, turning the volume up on his phone and handing it to her so she could see the video.

"Oh, god, they killed each other, didn't they?" Julie said as she got up from the keyboard, walking over to see as well.

"Not unless killed is a new euphemism." Flynn said, passing the phone to Julie.

"They're back together!" Julie exclaimed excitedly. She passed Reggie back his phone as new messages started to come in.

Message from: Luke

i told you we're good

we'll be over to get you in a bit ok?

Message from: Reggie

i wanna know everything

Reggie put his phone down and let Julie and Flynn know that Luke and Alex would be coming by shortly to come pick him up.

"Okay, can I ask though, you guys said they're back together, like they've been together before. Is this a good thing that they're back? Or are these the friends that end up blowing up the friend group once a month because they break up so often?" Flynn asked.

"From talking to Luke and Alex a little bit over the past couple days, I think it's a good thing, but Reg, you're the expert on them here." Julie said.

"I think it's a good thing. And friends- specifically me and Bobby the first time they broke up, and now you guys too since we've met you- friends are so important to both of them that they wouldn't ever do anything that would really risk harming a friendship, so if they're back, that means they feel really solid about this." Reggie said.

"Okay, cool. I hope they're right then." Flynn said, with a smile that didn't quite meet her eyes. She was a little bit worried still, Reggie could tell. A glance at Julie let him know she could tell too.

"We just don't wanna lose any of you guys as friends just as we've met you. We've lost a lot of the friends we were close with growing up. That's all." Julie explained to Reggie.

"Well, you're in luck, cause we stick like super glue. It's literally impossible to get rid of us once we've decided we love you." Reggie assured them both. He wrapped his arm around Flynn's shoulder and tugged her in for a little half-hug.

"Good. As it should be." Flynn said, grinning at Reggie and wrapping her arm around him to return the hug.

"Aww, guys. Is this a group hug moment?" Julie asked, holding her arms out.

"You better make it one." Reggie said, taking her extended hand and pulling her down onto the couch with him and Flynn to join the hug. Julie wasn't expecting to be pulled down and didn't quite stick the landing, managing to fall half on Flynn's lap and half on Reggie's. Flynn held a hand out to try and help her steady but Julie's balance was already lost and she had already face-planted into Flynn's shoulder. Flynn was laughing even as she wrapped her arm around Julie and tried to check that she was alright.

"Are you okay?" Flynn asked through her laughter.

"That would have been so much easier if you guys had stood up instead of pulling me down." Julie said, voice muffled as she refused to move her head from where she had now nestled into Flynn's shoulder.

"Yeah, but this way was way funnier." Flynn said.

"I hate you guys." Julie mumbled and Reggie leaned in to fully complete the group hug and wrap his arms all the way around Flynn and Julie.

"You love us." Reggie grinned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to anyone who actually knows how to use logic or does music production anything: i'm so sorry i'm sure this was a horrible description of it, i use audition for all my audio editing and its never music related, always voiceover or podcast work, so i was just faking it based on basic googling and what i've heard about logic and production from an acquaintance who actually does do some music production.


End file.
